=5>>.^^ :^ '^955,ooo Coke 6,521,040 Coal 7,028,520 Charcoal 3,020,000 Hardware and mining supplies 10,000,000 Machinery 3,500,000 Machine shop work 1,875,000 Hauling ore 3,603,250 $113,771,450 29 FLAIX ECONOMIC FACTS Adding cost of location, patent, and assessment work 7»750,i33 Gives a total of. $121,521,583 representing actual cost of discovery, location, patenting, operating, mining and smelting the ores of the Leadville dis- trict during the fourteen years of its history, no account being taken of the money invested in smelters in the district. Against this amount charge the district with the money received from its production of silver for the fourteen years, VIZ. : Ounces Av'ge price Money j Year. silver. per ounce. value. 1879.... 6,004,416 $1.12 $6,724,945.92 j 1880. . . . . • 8,993,399 1.14 10,252,474.86 i 1881.... 7,162,909 1. 13 8,094,087.17 1882.... • • 7,273,249 I-I3 8,218,771.37 I 1883.... • . 9,590,172 I.I I 10,645,090.92 ! 1884. . . . . . 7,078,951 I.OI 7,149,740.51 1885.... . . 8,314,593 1.06 8,813,468.58 1886.... . . 8,166,145 .99 8,084,483-55 1887.... . . 7,148,968 .97 6,934,498-96 1888.... . . 7,895,275 •93 7,342,605.75 . 1889.... . . 8,596,034 •93 7,994,311.62 1890 . . 7,061,093 1.04 7,343,536.72 ^ 1891 • • 7,535,526 .90 6,781,973-40 1892 . . 6,676,686 .86 5,741,949.96 Total. ...$107,497,416 $ 110,121,939.29 This total of yearly production (in ounces) is in excess of the figures given by the Director of the United States Mint, being derived from records of smelters, and probably includes some ores from mines outside of the Leadville dis- trict, which will explain the discrepancy. The total returns from yield of Leadville mines for the fourteen years in question, in gold, silver, lead and copper — Amount to the value of $179,710,207 30 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Deduct money value of silver product, figured on basis (New York quota- tions) of average yearly price of silver, less 5 per cent., as received by mine owners 104,615,842 Leaves value of by-products. . $75,094,365 So it appears — Total cost of production, fourteen years $121,521,583 Less returns from silver produced. . . 104,615,842 Would show a loss of $16,905,741 But the by-products, gold, lead, copper, as above, give a net profit of $58,188,624, clearly demonstrating that if the Leadville district had been a producer of silver only, the money returned to the district would not have paid the cost of production on the basis of the prices received from the smelters, and the district was saved from loss by virtue of its incidental products of lead, gold and copper. If silver has been worth to the mines during these four- teen years its coin value, the district would have received, in round numbers, $131,500,000, or a profit on its silver produc- tion, provided no account is taken of the cost and expendi- ture in the district involved in "prospecting" and abandoned experiments. Again, if Leadville had only been a silver-producing camp, the same as Aspen, the cost of the total silver product would have been over $1.13 per ounce. ASPEN DISTRICT. A comparison of the data from the Aspen district with the foregoing is interesting and furnishes conclusions that cannot be denied. The following concise and explicit report, proceeding upon same lines as the Leadville data, can be fully substan- tiated by proofs in the hands of this committee : 31 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS . Aspen, Col., July 27, 1893. Dear Sir — In response to your request for data regarding the cost of silver production in this county, a meeting of the principal mine owners and managers was held on the 14th inst. A complete organization was effected, the county was districted, and committees, including about forty of the best-known of our citizens, were appointed to secure as com- plete and accurate data as possible. Blank forms for re- ports were printed and furnished, and notices were given out through the public press requesting accurate and prompt returns from all citizens in possession of the information desired, and the undersigned were appointed as a commit- tee to compile the statistics received and report the same. A strong interest in the work was manifested by all our citizens who are engaged in the mining industry, and a large number of reports have been submitted to the com- mittee. Many of these were authentic statements taken from book accounts, and others were reliable and conserva- tive estimates, prepared by persons in possession of a direct knowledge of the facts. All reports have been subjected to careful scrutiny by the committee and all the total num- ber received — 380 individual reports — were considered in the preparation of the results submitted. Necessarily, in the short time occupied in the collection of data, the sum- mary is incomplete in that a large number of properties upon which large sums have been expended in develop- ment without returns have not been considered from lack of reliable data. On the other hand, properties which have produced largely and at a profit are all included, as the books of accounts in such cases are easily accessible. It may be assumed, therefore, with entire safety that the ac- tual cost per ounce of silver produced in this district will be somewhat above the result of the calculations herewith submitted. A categorical answer of the questions submitted is as follows : The total number of lode locations to date in the Aspen district, as certified by the County Clerk and Recorder, is 15,056. Of these, about fifty locations are at Independ- ence, and cover gold leads, leaving total number of silver lode locations, say, 15,000. 32 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS The records of the County Clerk's office show the total number of patented claims at 1,037; deducting thirty-one patented gold claims leaves 1,006 patented silver lode claims. The number of patented and non-patented prodticers, in- cluding all claims which have shipped even one ton of ore, is ninety-eight. The number of profit-producing claims (or groups) is eighteen. The number of claims (or groups) now (June i) paying, ten. The total production of silver to July i, as returned by mine reports, is 34,689,451 ounces. Deducting 5 per cent, as the loss which ensues from smelting, leaves 32,954,978 as the net production in ounces. The total cost of production, as tabulated below, is $35,- 380,507.22, or $1,074 per ounce. The items of cost included consist only of amounts paid for labor, supplies, plant, rail- road freight, smelter charges, and a sum of about $425,000 paid out in litigation expenses. Purchase price interest and the cost of the construction of tramways, roads and public power plants, etc., are not in- cluded. It will be seen that of the whole number of 15,000 loca- tions but 380 cases are reported. After careful considera- tion and consultation with the mining engineers and others who possess special knowledge upon the point, it is assumed in this report that each location was made at an average cost of $100 for labor, $12.50 for surveying and $2.50 for recording, or $115 per claim. From the same source of in- formation the conclusion is drawn that of the original num- ber of 15,000 locations, 6,500 are now live claims, and that an average of not less than eight years' annual labor has been performed on each, amounting to a total expense of $800 per claim. From actual measurement by the deputy mineral surveyor of development work performed upon the patented claims of the district, it is ascertained that the aver- age cost per claim exceeds $1,200. Other expenses of ob- taining patent are conservatively estimated at $200, making a total cost to each patented claim of, say, $1,400. From these estimates the following table is derived : 33 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 15,000 locations, at $115 each $1,725,000.00 1,006 patents, at $1,400 each 1,408,400.00 6,500 /'Hve claims," at $800 each. . . 5,200,000.00 380 claims reported 27,047,107.22 $35,380,507.22 Total number of ounces silver produced .... 32,954,978 Cost per ounce, $1,074. It may be proper to state further that the reliance of the mines of this district is upon the production of silver alone. A few of the mines produce lead, the total amount received for that metal by the mines of the district being estimated at less than $4,000,000, no account of which is made in the figures above presented. No gold or copper is found in the ore. Respectfully submitted, Fred G. Bulkley, William J. Cox, S. I. Hallett, Committee. Approved : David R. C. Brown, Chairman. Elias Cohn, Secretary. F. T. Freeland, D. M. Hyman, F. M. Coombs, E. M. Ray, D. W. Brunton, Frank Bulkley, (Here follows certificate of County Clerk as to number of locations and patented claims.) Attention is also directed to the fact that, neglecting one of Aspen's mines of phenomenal richness, the totals given would be as follows : Total cost .... $33,908,508.81 iotal ounces silver produced 26,524,843 Cost per ounce, $1.23. 34 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Neglecting three principal producers will give the follow- ing figures: Total expense $26,091,381.00 Total ounces silver produced 12,696,496 Cost per ounce, $2.36. Fred G. Bulkley, William J. Cox, S. I. Hallett. SUMMARY. Leadville, fourteen years : Total locations ^9A99 Total patents 3*803 Total "live claims" 4,874 Total claims that have produced ore. 166 Total claims that have paid 85 Total claims now paying 18 Production, ounces silver 107,497,416 By-products of silver mines, gold, lead, copper $75,094,365.00 Expenditure of district $121,521,583.00 Cost per ounce if there had been no by-product, $1,13. Aspen, eight years : Total locations 15,000 Total patents 1,006 Total "live claims" 6,500 Total claims that have produced ore. 98 Total claims that have paid 18 Total claims now paying 10 Production, ounce silver 32,954,978 By-products of silver mines, lead only, something less than $4,000,000.00 Expenditures of district $35,380,507.22 Cost per ounce if there had been no by-product, $1,074. It should be remembered in offering any reports or quota- tions we consider it incumbent on any one dealing with such 35 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS subjects as affect the economic conditions that surround us, in the age in which one writes, that note should be taken and contrast made between conditions and all those things such as electric cage-hoists, lighting, pumping, ventilating and other operations, perhaps all made possible by simply arrest- ing the neighboring stream, heretofore carelessly wandering to at leisure, add its mite to the already wondrously mighty and wealthy waters versus the shoulder-sacked slave, slowly and sullenly ascending log-notched ladders from the slimy, sombre, rosin-lit caverns below. We find in De 1' Mar's "Cost, Production and Relative Value of Silver" that, "Even at the present day, when to man's labor is added the enor- mous power of steam machines, such as winders or bolsters, pumps, drills, stamp mills, etc., the cost of getting gold and silver, on the average throughout the world, is far in excess of its value." The average cost of mining, smelting and refining the product of one ton of silver ore may be laid down at $i6 — $3.50 for mining, which ranges from 60 cents to $18 and upwards; $3 for freight, which ranges from forty cents to $9 and upwards per ton; $7.50 for smelting or through the metallurgy of lead, which ranges from $2 or less to $20 and upwards. By stating $2 or less we are fully aware of the fact that a ton of what is known as neutral ore cannot be smelted for less than $4.50 at the very lowest, and that, under the most favorable conditions as to supplies and labor, etc. Without going into any elaborate tables or formulas we will plainly state that ore, to be smelted profitably, must contain something like the following proportion of the fol- lowing elements, although there are several formulas: It must contain silica oxide, 2 ; iron oxide, calcium oxide (av- erage lime rock, containing about 50 per cent.), and lead in this proportion or somewhat similar, 33. 33. 23. 10-12; as it is almost impossible to find this combination, which may be called a neutral ore, in ores, a mixture has to be made of the different qualities, so that some ores carrying a large per cent, of lime, iron or lead, which would be termed neu- tral ores also, the cost of smelting is lowered to the ovv^ner by the smelter in a bonus-like way, as the smelter must have such elements as a flux for the reduction of other rebellious 36 PLAIX ECONOMIC FACTS or refractory ores, the owner of which latter ores has to pay such bonus, which is added to the cost of the treatment of his ores — that is why we set it at $2 or less. Allowing $1 for extracting the silver from the base bul- lion at the refinery and $1.50 as interest on capital invest- ed in the property, machinery and all appliances, makuig $16.50, or more than the average ore is worth, icckoning silver at $1 per ounce, though sometimes the deficiency is made up by what is known as a by-product, such as gold, copper or the lead contents, but none of the other ingredi- ents of the combination, such as silica, lime, sulphur, zinc, iron, etc., are ever recovered. Being unable to unearth any cogent reason for ascribing to gold more than one cherubic chemical intrinsic quality over silver, which is offset by other qualities of silver, and consequently not being consistently fortified with any more plausible excuses, still we will exercise our supreme gall and . pronounce gold to be of twice the intrinsic value of that of silver, and, may we add, that we are prompted or tempted to do so purely and simply out of respect for our affable and gentlemanly neighbors, but we feel guilty when we reflect that the nude facts will not support our deliber- ate though dishonest magnanimity, yet always remembering that we are of age, and therefore personally responsible to society for all such transgressions against verity. And be- fore entering the gate to the field of medicine we are tempted to give our individual opinion why gold should be appreciated somewhat more than silver, and it is not for the sound, material reason that by its aid the artist may uninter- ruptedly proceed, depicting in seductive colors his imaginary idol, or perhaps desecrating, with his sheer mockery or mimicry, the sublime works of nature for to receive the adulation of the asinine aulic, aesthetic acaridse. Our reason simply springs from the promptings or sug- gestions of our inner soul, ever adoring its heaven-divined mate, woman; ever unceasingly endeavoring to have her most aerial, fleeting thoughts crystallized into universal cer- tainties, that we raise our feeble voice for that protection to gold required to keep afloat her magnetic powers of fas- cination, of which the sole element being its fabulous cost. 37 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Ah ! where in all creation is the callous-brained egotistic phil- osopher presumptive enough to deem himself competent, with a microscopic degree of approximate certainty, of judging what longevity and rejuvenating-producing, intrinsic pow- ers given, through that self -approving mind, to the very plain woman believing herself beautified, by the enchanting glitter of the rings in her ears (not in her nose, as you thought I was about to say) the lover-enslaving chain around her neck, or the snake-like, seductive garter buckle? Ah! little does such a philosopher appreciate the.wondrotis weak- ening of the knees of the tight-panted dude across the street, or the maudlin, irresistible, enchanting attraction that drags him across through the mud, or in what a dazed condition, with the shades of her early departed and divorced hus- bands, he follows her through the park ! Or, did such a one imagine, how poorly he can relatively compare the force of such a thought of self-satisfaction — to woman — was he aware of the fact that such a thought is chiefly instrumental in bringing back that brunette hue of youth to the gray hairs even within an ace of the roots! Did he, indeed? Then it is reasonable to suppose he would go bag his head before at- tempting his scurrilous defamation of gold ! To attempt to meditate on this intrinsic power or value of gold causes the most courageous to consider himself only endowed with such insignificant reasoning powers that, without seeking any fur- ther expressive logic, he simply says: "Well, it beats all!" Yes, it beats Bill Jones, and that ever-truthful commodity, Everybody, says Bill Jones beats the devil! Silver as a medicine! It was for a time abused in the treatment of epilepsy and given in such quantities as to cause the innocent, suffering victim to turn a dark-blue color, or silver-sulphide, like Wilkie Collins's hero. It is used as an injection for private diseases — not often discussed in select society. It is used extensively as a caustic. Homoeopathists use it extensively in nervous and brain diseases, and in dis- eases of the hver. But the dose they generally prescribe for an adult would not make a respectable mote for the junior- eye of a mosquito, while the regular school physician will order for his patient a good-sized, cart-wheel, honest dollar ! But both schools of medicine are at a loss to know— and 38 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS are inordinately anxious and unremitting in their endeavors to unravel the mystery — as to whether it is the honesty or the dollar that does the renovating, side-act business. Silver is used as a. medicine in the form of a nitrate, and also metal- lic, but supposed to be changed in the system by the chlorine and sodium in the blood. It is found in great, boulder-like chunks in the blue blood of divine-right idiots. (But the only medical authority for this is Dr. O. E. Cornelius. — Author.) Nickel has not been found native. It is found mineralized by, or associated with, sulphur, arsenic and antimony, also with bismuth and cobalt ores and magnetic pyritees. It is also found alloyed with iron in meteors, sometimes being as high as 20 per cent, of the meteor's composition. It is silver- white in color. It fuses easier than iron. Carbonic oxide changes it, and other acids. It dissolves in aqua regia, as does gold. Its specific gravity is about 8^, and, as it does not tarnish or oxidize by exposure, it possesses the same intrinsic qualities for use as tokens of legal tender as gold or silver. Its volume in nature, so far as determined, is about the same as silver, or about thirty times that of gold, on account of its lighter gravity than silver. There has not been much attention paid to it until recently. It is now used as an alloy of what is known as nickel-steel, on account of its great resistance to force, when alloyed with iron or other metals, which property gold does not possess. It is superior to steel for the manufacture of philosophical instruments, as it does not so attract the magnet like steel. In China it is used as an alloy for coins and is prohibited from being carried out of the Empire, where it is called tutenague, but it is smuggled into the Indies, where it is called packfong. It is of different mixtures, or combina- tions, the average being, according to Dr. Fyfe and M. Meu- rer, copper, 52.82; zinc, 22.46; nickel, 22.3; iron, 1.3; silver, 1.25. It is called white copper; it has the color of silver, and is remarkably sonorous. Several European countries have used nickel as an alloy for coins. The above combina- tion has an excellent metallic ring or jingle, not at all like the coins used in the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Jamaica, etc. In some countries the alloy is called argentan 39 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS or German silver. The combination is generally unlike in all countries. . Its value in China in recent years has been thirty-five cents per ounce, or one-fourth that of silver, its commercial value in the United States being below $i per pound; but if it was granted a letter of license and clothed with full legal tender intrinsic value and free coinage of about 371 grains to the dollar, it would be worth $1.30 per ounce the world over, or why not make 23.2 grains of nickel constitute $i, the same as gold, and by magic cause its 'intrinsic value to equal $20 per ounce? The reason is this— because there is a larger volume of the metal in nature, which would furnish to man a nearer adequate and commensurate supply to carry on trade and commerce, without being forced to borrow from banks and thus compelled to pay an unrighteous interest for the use of the common public property, the national cir- culating medium. It is used for electroplating other metals to prevent their oxidizing or rusting, similarly with gold and silver. But, on account of the prescriptive value of gold, we will in this case be as sublimely presumptive as we were in setting a compara- tive intrinsic value between gold and silver, and hereby place gold at three times that of the intrinsic value of nickel. Copper occurs native, containing more or less silver gener- ally, and combined or mixed with oxygen, sulphur, selenium, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, carbon, phosphorous and zinc, and, like silver and nickel, is principally found around or among igneous rocks, which fact promises assurance of its stability. It is ductile, malleable and sectile and about the same hardness as silver, and somewhat harder than gold, and by the alloy of 10 per cent, of nickel, v/hich prevents its corrosion or oxidation, it is competent to serve for all the monetary purposes of legal tender as well as gold or silver. It dissolves in nitric acid, like silver. Its weakness in resisting air, moisture and acids is greatly recompensed for by its strength and durability, and the ease with which it may be alloyed with other metals, or either coating it with nickel, silver, gold, platinum, etc., then for all practical purposes it can and does take the place of all other metals which, from their small volume, could not be spared or procured to take 40 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the place of or substitute copper, while, when coated, it can take the place of nearly all other metallic elements. It is alloyed with zinc to compose brass thus : Copper, ranging from 60 to 85 per cent.; zinc, 15 to 38 per cent; lead, o to 2 per cent. For bronze, which fairly resists oxi- dation or rust, thus : Bronze medals, copper, 93 per cent. ; tin, 7 per cent. Speculum metal, copper, 60 per cent.; tin, 30 per cent. ; arsenic, 10 per cent. For statues, copper, 82 per cent. ; tin, 2 per cent. ; zinc, 16 per cent. The best cast- ing, copper, 91.4 per cent. ; zinc, 5.53 per cent.; tin, 1.7 per cent.; lead, 1.37 per cent. Again, for bronze, copper, 90 per cent. ; aluminum, 10 per cent. From the above and from the general uses to which copper is put, which is known to every one, it may be readily seen and safely concluded that copper and gold, as metals, differ only in an infinitesimally small degree in their relative in- trinsic values, for copper can be employed in all practical uses and more than that to which gold can be put, as, for in- stance, gold and silver alone will not form a hard alloy, while copper and silver will, as you can find and see and feel in our coin-silver dollar, which contains 10 per cent, copper, some- what similar with the hardness of our copper cent, adopted in 185 1, which contained 10 per cent, of nickel. We see also by the above that copper alloys with, or combines with, a great many metals, several others not here mentioned, and several minerals or elements with which gold will not com- bine. Its specific gravity is nearly 9, or a little less than one- half that of gold. It is the best-known conductor of elec- tricity in the metallic world. It is used as money by nearly every civilized nation in the world, in some form or other. In contrast with gold, its one lacking quality is its non-resist- ance to acids, and consequently unused in their distillation, except when gilt. On account of the assistance it requires from other metals to prevent its deterioration by acidic elements, it will be reasonable to allow it — that is to be con- sistent with our previous presumption — only the one-fourth of the intrinsic value of gold, with gold as the basic stand- ard one ; in other words, accrediting gold with four times the intrinsic value of a similar weight of copper. The an- 4T PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS nual product of copper is about 175,000 tons; gold, 250 tons. Copper as a medicine. — It is one of the three great epi- demic remedies of Rade Macher of the old alchemistic school. Nowadays the regulars call it a tonic in small doses, some- times used in the form of sulphate, as an emetic, also in the form of bluestone as a caustic. The homoeopathists use it in a great variety of convulsive disorders, in pneumonia, in green sickness or chlorosis. Hahnemann first used it for Asiatic cholera. Rade Macher set off epidemic cycles, say, of eighteen months, divided into three parts — one a copper, one iron, one arsenic. In the copper period copper was ad- ministered in all sicknesses and diseases; when the iron period was on, iron was prescribed, and so on. These are the only three remedies known to arrest epidemics such as chol- era, etc. Aside from the impossibility of man's existence without iron, who can judge of the manifold medicinal, in- trinsic values or virtues of copper and iron, taking gold, as the unit or basis? But all qualified authorities agree that copper and iron have more curative virtues or properties than gold has, yet all of either, except iron, are but supposi- tion. Oh ! shade of Paterson the Pirate ! How will we find some more immanent or intrinsic value for gold ? Iron occurs native and is found in meteoric iron, so-called, alloyed with nickel ; it is a very abundant ore or metal, being calculated to form from the 1/7 to the i/ii of the entire solid crust of the earth, or inorganic matter. Iron has been known from the earliest historic period, but not much in use until some 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks using- it as weapons of war, as they had by this time cast aside the jawbone of an ass. It is malleable and ductile, but, of course, not to such an eminent degree as silver, platinum or gold. The gravity of iron is nearly 8, and its hardness about 43/2, or, in a geometrical ratio, about four times the force-resisting power of gold. By infusing carbon into it at a certain degree of temperature, which cannot be done with gold, it becomes steel, which, when properly tempered by immersing it when at certain heats into a cold bath of water and oil, it attains a hardness of 8, or superior to platin- iridium, or iridosmine, which latter metals thus alloyed have a hardness of 7, but a specific gravity of 22. Generally the 42 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS harder the metal the less malleability, but not always just as the softer with the accompaniment of density — that is, the closeness of its atonic or molecular arrangement with flexi- bility, the more malleability, ductility and sectility. Iron's poor resistance to acids, air or moisture would with some superficial, or light-weight, or chaffy economists place it down in the scale of intrinsic value in a comparative way, but the impossibility of man's existence, as well as all other animals, without it, places it inestimably in advance and pre- eminently at the head of all other metals combined, in regard to intrinsic value, so that the theoretical and legendary non- sense and craze about the intrinsic value of gold fades into an aerified gas of the wildest, hair-brained speculation or imagination, when compared to the absolute and realistic proof of the value of iron. Iron has been widely used as money, for which use it is peculiarly adapted, as we may judge from our bunch of keys, knife or buttonhook carried in the pocket, on account of its durability, its indestructibility by fire, and its susceptibility to perfect impressions when hot ; but it is not adapted for the purpose of the miser we read about, who hoards his money and buries it in damp ground, for in some 200 years the evidence of its legal tender quality, stamped thereon in con- formity with the law regulating the volume and value of tokens and rendering it obligatory on the creditor to receive them in payment of all debts or forfeit the right of collec- tion, might by that time be effaced, and his mother-in-law's posterity would have nothing left, probably, but iron oxide or red iron ore, and would consequently be put to the ex- pense of smelting it over and having it stamped again, which expense in itself would be sufficient to condemn to the most condign contumely any calamity howler who could consist- ently advocate the use or reissue of iron as money. The only plausible reason that can be given why iron is not adopted as the only metal to coin tokens of legal tender money from by government is the supposed trouble arising from the possible or probable inability of government to regulate its volume, as the volume of the metal in nature would enable the individual so disposed to procure it by weight at probably 100 times less than that of its coin value, 43 . PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and thereby be tempted to enter into its coinage in compe- tition with society that had regulated by law the per capita amount to be coined. But this objection holds good only in part, as we do not find much trouble from counterfeiting paper and have easily managed to keep such enterprise or industry in abeyance. Now, if it is necessary to have a metal for money of the highest intrinsic value to man, or the inhabitants of this planet, not Mars, iron is pre-eminently that metal, as any sane individual must admit that iron is of incalculably more benefit and intrinsic value to man than all other metals corn- bined. So we do hope to hear no more of the intrinsic value of money, except from those to whom God has allotted no more sense than geese, whose gosling gabble we some- times hear of as being advertised in the daily dodgers, sar- castically called the press, the goslings being generally styled "our own correspondent," "people's voice," and "all-around reporters," Who run up and down the street, interviewing noble gan- ders ; It seems their sole ambition is appointment as their panders, But to whose mamas' credit the fact we must here and now adduce. Indeed she's not at all aware that her young are running loose. Iron as a medicine. — The uses and abuses of iron are well known by the laity, with or without medical advice, as they will take it until their stomachs rebel and their digestions sometimes utterly destroyed under the mistaken notion that they have to take heroic doses in order to tone up their blood or blood-discs, hsemi or blobeen, while it is well known that there is not sixty grains of metallic iron in the blood of a healthy adult, or not the weight of fifteen cents in silver. It is One of the three great epidemic remedies of Rade Macher. It is used in a great variety of diseases in the form of Chalyb- eate, or mineral waters impregnated with iron. It is one of the mainstays of ancient balneology. Its use by the homoeop- athists is mostly symptomatic, that some deranged form of the condition of the blood, is its main indication. Iron, 44 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS indeed, must be the medicine, the metal, or the money of the virtuous for, not Hke gold, it, is aggravating in all forms of syphilis, and is therefore a burning curse to the base, licentious profligate, while it establishes for the worthy youth vim, vigor and virtue. Oh, Fate ! can you not conjure up some more intrinsic attributes for gold and bring it within the thunder-distance of man's cheap money metal, iron? The principal benefits to mankind which may be derived from the intrinsic properties of gold, which are its malle- ability and resistance to acids, supposed to be so highly prized in a scientific way, are curtailed and limited to an in- jurious degree solely by its use as money tokens, and, if for no other philosophical reason, it should be discarded as one of the materials of such tokens, particularly on account of its very limited volume. If its intrinsic qualities render it indispensable to scientists, and there being a statutory law forbidding the destruction or mutilation of coins, and that mankind would reap more and further benefits from its more extended use in the arts, why, then, not demonetize it and thereby make it more plentiful for the artisan and cheapen it for all mankind? For silver is known to exist in greater volume and to possess all the intrinsic qualities of gold necessary for a metal to possess in order to render its adoption desirable for coins. By adopting silver as the only metal from which to strike all legal tender coins in the future it might give reason to the scientist to rightfully and rapturously rejoice and a long-sought-for opportunity to the great majority of mankind to applaud. We are told by the intrinsic usurer not born with a caul over his head, but whose brain in the womb re- ceived the magical impression of "promise to pay," that sil- ver has lost its intrinsic properties, and that the Mogul of the Ainus has decreed them transferred to gold and brass. He also tells us that gold is becoming scarcer, and that we will have to issue five promises to pay a dollar on every gold dollar, the gold dollar to be the legal tender of the money loaner and our foreign customers and to be the basis of the promises, and the promises to be a legal tender for the laborer only. Indeed, he shifts around so it is rather difiicult to keep track of him, for he knows that all the gold in the world would not be sufficient as the only medium of ex- 45 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS | change for the United States, yet he fails to suggest that we command four grains of gold, instead of 23.2, to be the unit measure of $1, while he knows that if any congress has the right or authority to pronounce 23.2 grains gold $1^ it must undeniably have the authority to decree that five grains shall constitute $10, or any other relative declaration. Really, it is not the value of gold, nor the value of silver or any other metal, that annoys the interest gatherer, nor neither would any skillful physician prescribe vermifuge, for his ailment, nor do flies distract him, but his whole soul is wrapped up in the one thought of how to make money scarce, which, of course, makes it dear, and all other commodities that it measures consequently cheap. By making it scarce its unnatural dishonest and unhallowed increment or inter- est — the curse of all creation — is proportionally increased, thereby enabling the usurer to rake in a larger tax or tithe from active industry, that produces all and incurs all risk en- countered in production, while the banker is made trebly se- cured before loaning the people their own medium of ex- change, that by unjust laws he has so arranged it as not only to possess an inordinate and unjust amount of it, but, in combination with his kind and by the aid of purchasable officials, he regulates the volume in circulation, and as a corollary also the interest or tax rate imposed on industrious society as well. When the circulating medium or volume of monetary measures is decreased, which correspondingly decreases the current prices of all other commodities, which must be meas- ured by it, great care is taken not to decrease the amount owned by those who deal in the works of shamelessly sav- age sociologic fiction, money on interest, but, on the con- trary, the interest is increased, as well as the purchasing power of the principal, as is well known to the most stupid that every decrease in the amount of circulation or increase of business or population ends in cheaper honor, virtue and realty. But we have yet to hear that the ludicrous experi- ment has as yet been tried, that is, the calling of all owners of real property (honor and virtue) of absolute necessity and intrinsic value to assemble at the Capitol, and there hear pronounced by the choice-wine-flavored-breath of a maudlin political-philanthropist the edict, I, Me, do now hereby de- 46 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS cree, that thenceforth and during my pleasure, that the in- trinsic value or virtue of all real commodities, etc., shall increase in a just and meet degree proportionally, as I, me, have caused to increase the purchasing power of its savage- divined measure. He who advocates the policy that gold should be the sole standard or measure of values either exhibits or exposes his total ignorance of the proper use or function of money, or the prescriptive valuation of all property, or else he estab- lishes unmistakeable evidence of his fiendish depravity. Let us examine the standard he would set up for this great American people, were there none else in the world. In January, 1893, the whole existing stock of gold in the whole world was but seven and one-half billion dollars, or $7,610,000,000 used as coin and in every other form. It would just require three times that amount to pay our recorded debt, besides that of private debts among individuals. On that date, and now, the total valuation of the United States is computed at far more than eighty billion dollars, and the annual production valued at twenty-two billion dollars, so the total valuation should be ten times the latter amount, or two hundred and twenty billion dollars, and the annual in- crease is valued as fifteen billion dollars, so our yearly in- crease alone could not be purchased for less than twice as much gold as exists in the arts and as money in the entire nations of the earth. And if every actual producer in the United States could for one year save up one-third of his production, or one-half the increase of wealth and entertain a righteous fear of those gambling dens, the banks and like institutions, and keep his money for the year, there would not be gold enough to pay for all in the whole world, without taking all plate and jewelry, even to ladies' garter-snake buckles and shimmering shirt studs, putting all into the crucible and coining them. Of course, such a thing would be well-nigh impossible, as so much money would be drawn from circulation that purchas- ers with the ability and willingness to buy and pay for it could not be found, as they could not borrow the money, no matter how valuable their property might be. And the rest of the world would find themselves compelled to take from 47 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS its hermitage to enjoy once again the Hght of day that ''Let- ter of License." (See paragraph 446, on national banks.) We find on the same date that all the silver in the world was only nine billion dollars, both coined and otherwise, or between gold and silver about enough to pay for one year's increase. The absurdity of the claim that there is gold enough to carry on the commerce or business of the world, even to a blind man, is plainly apparent, whether you choose to wink or nod at him, for he knows that the world's total stock of gold coins is but $3,700,000,000, the remaining four billion dollars plate, jewelry, etc., while there are about 1,500,000,000 population, or an allowance to each person of $2.46 per capita per annum, to purchase and pay for the average $120 worth that each one is supposed to consume. With the silver added, which is a little more than the gold, according to the most reliable statistics, although United States Treasury and Mint reports are included, amounting to four billion dollars in coin, the balance, five billion dollars, in plate, jewelry, etc., so that with gold and silver coin each of the inhabitants of the world would just have about $5 per capita to purchase all his wants and for the payment of all his past debts. So we see that, even with the free coin- age of gold and silver, it would yet be a tough scheme for him to ever get down to a cash basis, as they have now in France. Let us see how it is with the American. All the gold in the treasury, banks, in circulation and hoarded away (United States Mint report, August 16, 1893), is but $9.01 per cap- ita, but it is not that now, on account of increase of popula- tion and the amount since exported to pay our debts, which never had a right to exist, if our misnamed statesmen were patriotic and knew the A, B, C of finance ; but each individ- ual would have about $9 gold to pay for his average con- sumption of at least $300 worth of food, raiment, etc., for, according to United States statistics, in 1892 our total agri- cultural production amounted to twelve billion dollars, our factory productions eight and one-half billion dollars, allow- ing for all other hand-labor productions, etc., only two billion dollars, and only one billion dollars of all this exported; we consumed the rest, and more, for we imported about as much, if not more, than we exported. Besides providing for 48 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS this $300 worth, the poor $9 would, somehow, have to ar- range for the average $220 of annual increase in imperish- able improvements, etc. As the circulation is now (August, 1893), with $9 gold, $9.18 silver, and $6.15 paper, total $24.34 per capita, as against $24,68 April i, 1892. Counting the amount in the treasury and the reserve in banks, would leave about $11 per capita in actual circulation for the producer to procure his average $520 worth of what he consumes, and in wealth accumulates, so he must be a very stupid monstrosity, on being convinced of this, that would wonder at our regular and methodical panics, or wonder why it is that interest is so high, garnering annually more than one-tenth of every- thing produced, or why it is that both the ranks are increas- ing in inverse ratio, of the robbing millionaire and the robbed tramp, under sanction of imp-evolved law. We are told that we cannot have the free coinage of silver — they are now dropping the intrinsic value racket — they say, because its commercial value in the markets of the world is steadily decHning. Can this be from its increased production in the past half a century? It cannot be, for the twenty years from 1853 ^o 1^73 there was $i,zi4 1,000,000, and from 1873 to 1892, $236,000,000 more gold produced in the world than silver, and from 1873 to 1893 there was but $190,000,000 more silver produced than . gold in the United States, leaving $1,487,000,000 of a gap for silver to jump over, for which it would take eighteen years if there was not another dollar more of gold produced in the world, or, figuring at the same ratio of increase for the last twenty years of $9,500,000 per anuum, it would require that steady increase, or the same amount, for a period of almost 162 years, for silver to gain what it lost from 1853 to 1873. But is it not remarkable to see the inconsistency of our would-be financiers and note them selling out their country, just at the close of that twenty-year period, when silver had lost so much in the race of production, and demonetize it, just because it was getting scarce? The question here pre- sents itself to our mind. Will ever the American writer be endowed with such descriptive powers as to ever adequately portray, in proper denunciatory terms, the base perfidy and 49 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS treason of those who consummated that dastardly act of robbery on the American people ? Just think of it ! Done for the miserable sum of half a million, and by those, some of whom are now, to the nation's disgrace, yet active in the. merchantable ranks of the political arena. The uncontra- dictory answer is, if the transmigration of souls from an- cestor to future generations be correct, and the soul in- creases in ludicity and power in the ratio of the cube of generations, then the tenth generation of Victor Hugo might do feeble justice in describing the unprecedentedly infernal crime. That crime, committed at the instance of the prin- cipal banks or bankers of England and our own country, who set themselves the task to do so in order to reduce the legal tender money of the world and thereby render their speculations more profitable, as well as to reduce the cur- rent price of the necessaries of life, which England is com- pelled to purchase from outsiders, in order to even hazard- ously exist and be numbered among nations, whose right of existence is based solely on connivance, hollow pride and egotism. From 1792 up to 1834 our ratio was, with equal terms of coinage for gold and silver, fifteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. Some goldites or monometallists sciy that that law did not make fifteen ounces of silver worth one ounce of gold, and that gold left the country ; the latter part of the assertion is true, but let us see why it left. The French ratio was then and since fifteen and one-half ounces of silver to one of gold, so that a merchant or any other raking one ounce of gold from this country got fifteen and one-half ounces of silver to pay his debts with in Europe, both gold and silver being then full legal tender ; but if he brought fifteen ounces of silver he would find himself short one-half ounce of the price of one ounce of gold in that country, and as a matter of business he sent, or brought, that commodity — gold — that brought the largest price, or fifteen and one-half ounces silver, instead of fifteen. The French ratio then governed all European markets. But in the United States both were interchangeable and full legal tender, and one ounce of gold could only purchase fifteen ounces of silver. Again, the gold bug, in hunting around for some excuse 50 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to hide his nefarious designs, in order to make it appear that the money question is one of abstract science, although it is universally known that such .is not the case, and that any one paying the attention to it that they ought, or that it deserves, that they will find it as easily reasoned out as that two and two make four, although that the money-loaning monsters generally endeavor to surround it with all the mysteries of Beelzebub, so that the producer might be de- terred from inquiring into the fiendish methods by which he is robbed. But the money-monger exposes his duplicity and divarications when he tells us that • when we changed our ratio from fifteen to one to sixteen to one that that law did not make one ounce of gold worth sixteen ounces of silver, and that the gold remained and that the silver left the country. See how he whips around the stump: Would it not remind you of the little, innocent story of the cat and the fox? Let us see about bringing the gentleman to bay before we get through with him. In the United States while that law existed sixteen ounces of silver could always be bought for one ounce of gold, and no more, up to 1873, but, as we have remarked before, the French or European measure of the metals was fifteen and one-half ounces silver to one ounce of gold. So that wath one ounce of gold the merchant could here obtain sixteen ounces of silver, which he brought or sent to Europe, and was only required to give fifteen and one-half ounces of it for one ounce of gold, and one-half ounce thereby was saved to him as profit. This is why the silver left the country, and this is why that it is as plain as the rum-blossom that adorns the average a-ctive financier's nose. The only factor that gave or gives either gold or silver 9999 9/10 of its present or past commercial value is, and was, the law .only, for through its agency or mandate it not only creates that continuous and absorbing use for it through free coinage, which privilege men and nations will ever avail themselves of, whenever purchasable politicians will admit, until the world can transact its business on a cash basis, but it also defines and establishes its fixed measure of value, only as regulated each metal or money by the other in a certain ratio, or by giving a specified measure or weight or numerical description, a verbal, imprinted or nominal value, 51 . PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS either or all endowed with similar numerically regulated functions, both singly and collectively, as the case may be, but universally without any counter check or standard of all, or any, of the commodities of indispensable necessity for human existence, therefore estabhshing money the arbitrary regulator of all real values, which latter must per conse- quent depend on the numerical or volumetric force, strength or amount of the former to capriciously determine the lat- ter's current prices, without regard to their undeniable labor cost, and fully known and demonstrated worth and indis- pensable necessity. So that when money is plenty or cheap all other commodi- ties will sell for more of that money, whether it be legal ten- der or promise to pay, than when money is scarce or dear, when all other commodities sell for less of it, for they are, and must be, measured by the .amount in circulation, as there is no other measure of value set on them, and that„ but in a headlessly indefinite way, nor as yet, no other way devised for measuring their value, which, in their normal condition, is as fixed and tangible a.s the universe. Since the amount in circulation determines in all cases the pro- portionate amount to be paid or received for all productions or services, it behooves us to see to it that we have that amount of absolute money — gold silver and paper — com- mensurate with our wealth and volume of business, say, one-tenth of our wealth, evidenced in the volume of legal tender tokens, and in a comparative proportion to the bal- ance of the world, particularly those countries with whom, unfortunately for us, we carry on trade or commerce. Money from the earliest dawn of history has been given fixed value as money by law, by some governments or coun- tries, which value measure was generally accepted by other countries, even when they had no such law or enactments of their own, as regulating the relative value as money of gold and silver, which had different regulations or values in different countries, according to their infantile or incipi- ent knowledge of finance or economy, or according to their beliefs in their idols or gods, as almost every known element or visible thing had a god of its own, so if they had a small amount of money in circulation — not like us now — they had plenty of gods that for them probably answered 52 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the same purpose, so we say either give us more gods or give us more money. For 2,200 years before Christ there was gold and silver money in China, some such silver coins being yet preserved, the inscription on which, when translated, reads, "Good for gold." The laws of India, fixing the relation between gold and silver, date back nearly 2,000 years before Christ. All the old philosophers were wont to declare silver the more stable metal of the two. Locke was a single silver standard man, as were all other intelligent men in all ages, with the exception of the professional money loaners and their satel- lites, and up to 1816 there was no nation in the world con- fined to a gold standard, until that year England stopped the free coinage of silver in the hope of making legal ten- der money scarce, and because she produced little or no silver; but she could not beat down its universal ratio of fifteen and one-half or sixteen to one until her agents bought out the right honorable scheming Jack & Co., who in the dark stealthily stabbed American prosperity by demonetizing silver in 1873, which action soon after caused France, or about that time, to close her mints also, but who alone up to that time for some years kept up the price of silver to her ratio of fifteen and one-half in Europe, despite the action of England, Germany and other nations in de- monetizing it, and no doubt France never would have closed her mints were it not for the surreptitious action of a dozen or more of unnatural American traitors, and this silver ques- tion would not now be agitating the world, or the treat- ment silver received, bringing destitution and its concomi- tants, vice, crime and suicide, to the homes of its countless millions, whose sufferings cry to heaven for vengeance to descend on the heads of the traitors ; and no wonder if those sufferers would join in prayer that the curse of the poet might descend on them and, even, though uncharitable, on their posterity, that, "man deny them succor, earth a home, and heaven its God." But now let us examine the question of value in the metals, or the regulation of the ratio between them, that the goldites would have us be guided by, or the laws on the subject that we are told we should conform to. As though the American people of to-day do not know more on the 53 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS subject than those financiers that are continually quoted from in part to suit any case in point ; as though the steam printing press has not made it possible for the humblest in the land to thoroughly sift the collated knowledge of all those compelled, as it were, to grope in the light of a rosin- dip or a greased-rush and to add it to his electric experience of economic law in the past thirty-five years. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XXIL, page 73, says : *'In Spain, by the edict of Medina (1497), the ratio was ten and three-fourths. When America was first plundered the first fruits were gold, not silver; whereupon Spain, in 1546, and before the wealth of the silver mines of Potosi was known (mark you, the production of gold was then greatest!) raised the value of gold to thirteen and one-third (of silver to one part gold), and as Spain then monopolized the supply of the precious metals (about that ratio as the United States does now), the rest ,0/ the world was obliged to acquiesce in her valuation. During the following cen- tury Portugal obtained such immense quantities of gold from the East Indies, Japan and Brazil that the value of her imports of this metal exceeded £3,000,000 a year, whilst those of Spain had dwindled to £500,000 in gold and had only increased to £2,500,000 in silver. Portugal now gov- erned the ratio, and in 1688 raised the value of gold to six- teen times that of silver. Except during a brief period of forty years, this ratio has ever since been maintained in Spanish and British America and the United States. A cen- tury later the spoils of the Orient were exhausted, the Bra- zilian began to decline and Portugal lost her importance. Spain thus again got control of the ratio, and as her colonial produce was chiefly silver she raised its (silver's) value in 1775 from one-sixteenth to one-fifteenth and a half (parts) that of gold for the Peninsula, permitting it to remain at one-sixteenth in the colonies. (Now, silver's production greatest, by law, advanced in price.) France, whose previ- ous ratio (that of 1726) was about fourteen and one-half, adopted the Spanish ratio of fifteen and one-half in 1785, and has adhered to it ever since. These three historical ratios, and the bearing of each upon the others, have influ- enced all legislation on the subject, and where tnere waf. no legislation have governed the bullion market tor inore 54 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS than two centuries." Is this not Enghsh authority piovmg that it is the law only that fixes or establishes the price or value of money metals, and English authority that when the production of a particular metal was greatest that its price or value was advanced by law only? And proof that the theory of value or price arising from scarcity, coupled with desire, was denied, in the ancient laws that are gabbled so much about? When France in 1726 established the ratio of 14.62 to I all the following countries had a different ratio, showing how little they knew about the economic regula- tions and consequent government of society that they as- sumed: Portugal, 14.4 to I ; China, 6 to i ; England, 15 to I ; Japan, 4 to i ; India, 10 to i, and other Asiatic countries from 8 to 10 to I. In 1785, when France changed her ratio to 15^ to I, we find England yet had 15 to i ; Portugal now 14 to I ; Spain, 16 to i, but gradually all nations con- formed to the French ratio of 15^ to i, that ratio being termed and known as the par of exchange. Then came the United States, in 1792, with a ratio of fif- teen to one. Then comes England, or, rather the Bank of England, in 1816, who pretends to her people that she pos- sessed a secret that no one but herself knew — that was that there was no intrinsic value in silver. So she stopped its coinage for her people, but as they could slip across the Channel and have it coined in France they have never be- lieved the story, as the plucky French have proved that in Europe, almost alone, she has been able to maintain its monetary price there, and in a great measure throughout the world, as has been acknowledged by the English Royal Commission, appointed in 1888 for the purpose of deter- mining the cause of the falling price of silver. In their report they attribute it "only to the suspension of coinage in 1873-4. Until France suspended coinage the variation in the price of silver did not average over five-eighths of one cent per ounce, and for 1874 only two and one-fourth cents." In 1847 the Netherlands adopted the silver standard. - Up to 1 87 1 England was alone in the world as a gold- standard country, when Germany came to her aid and in law declared her belief that there was no intrinsic value in silver. Still she has $103,000,000 full legal tender silver. But who would wonder at whatever she might say — a country that, 55 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS in 1857, went so far as to pass a law demonetizing gold, then in fourteen years afterward to become so civilized as to knock silver over the ropes and show to the world that the value of money is a myth, and that' myth, vulgarly called, law. Even yet England, aided by Germany, could not beat down the price of silver, although France had not only, about this time, been compelled to recuperate from the effects of a desolating war, but to pay an indemnity or ransom, or, rather, purchase an evacuation of her soil by a victorious army of $1,000,000,000, which, to their credit and our rela- tive disgrace, they paid in an incredibly short time, having to do it but the one-half of our population and one-seventeenth of our territory. Well, they knew the voracity of the usurer ! Next Ernest Seyd came over to visit one John Sherman, and you know the rest. If not, read this, taken from the Bankers' Magazine of August, 1873 and copied from a Lon- don journal, and as yet uncontradicted: "In 1873, silver being demonetized in France, Holland and England, a capi- tal of $500,000 was raised, and Ernest Seyd, of London, was sent to this country with this fund, as agent of the for- eign bondholders and capitalists, to effect the same object (demonetization of silver), which was accomplished." And read this, taken from the Congressional Globe of 1872, page 2304: "Ernest Seyd, of London, a distinguished writer and hulliolist, who is now here, has given great attention to the subject of mint and coinage. After having examined the first draft of this (for the demonetization of silver) bill, he m,ade various sensible suggestions, which the com- mittee adopted and embodied in the bill." In case you need any further proof to fasten heinous perfidy on a supposed American we will trespass on your patience by asking you to just read: HOW SILVER WAS DEMONETIZED. AN INTERESTING AFFIDAVIT. Mr. Frederick A. Luckenbach is a prominent citizen of Denver, Colorado. He is reliable and responsible, and is a former member of the New York Produce Exchange. 56 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS In May, 1892, he made the following affidavit, now of special interest. We reproduce it, and will let the reader pass judgment on it. STATE OF COLORADO, County of Arapahoe, ss. : Frederick A. Luckenbach, being first duly sworn on oath, deposes and says : In the year 1865 I visited London, Eng- land, for the purpose of placing there Pennsylvania oil prop- erties in which I was interested. I took with me letters of introduction to many gentlemen in London — among them one to Mr. Ernest Seyd from Robert M. Foust, ex-treasurer of Philadelphia. I became well acquainted with Mr. Seyd and with his brother, Richard Seyd, who, I understand, is yet living. I visited London thereafter every year, and at each visit renewed my acquaintance with Mr. Seyd, and upon each occasion became his guest one or more times — joining his family at dinner or other meals. In February, 1874, while on one of these visits, and while his guest for dinner, I, among other things, alluded to rumors afloat of parliamentary corruption, and expressed astonishment that such corruption should exist. In reply to this, he told me he could relate facts about the corruption of the American Congress that would place it far ahead of the English Parliament in that line. So far, the conversa- tion was at the dinner table between us. His brother, Rich- ard, and others were there also, but this was table talk be- tween Mr. Ernest Seyd and myself. After the dinner ended he invited me into another room, where he resumed the conversation about legislative corruption. He said: "If you will pledge me your honor as a gentleman not to divulge what I am about to tell you while I live, I will convince you that what I said about the corruption of the American Con- gress is true." I gave him the promise, and he then con- tinued: "I went to America in the winter of 1872-3, au- thorized to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill demone- tizing silver. It was to the interest of those I represented — the governors of the Bank of England — ^to have it done. I took with me £100,000 sterling, with instructions if that was not sufficient to accomplish the object to draw for an- 57 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS other £100,000 or as much more as was necessary." He told me German bankers were also interested in having it accomplished. He said he was the financial adviser of the bank. He said: "I saw the committees of the House and Senate and paid the money and stayed in America until I knew the measure was safe." 1 asked if he would give me the names of the members to whom he paid the money— but this he declined to do. He said : ''Your people will not nozu comprehend the far-reaching extent .of that measure — but they will in after years. Whatever you may think of corruption in the English Parliament, I assure you, I would not have dared to make such an attempt here as I did in your country." I expressed my shame to him, for my coun- trymen in our legislative bodies. The conversation drifted into other subjects, and after that— though I met him many times — the matter was never again referred to." (Signed) Frederick A. Luckenbach. Subscribed and sworn to before me at Denver, this ninth day of May, A.D., 1892. (Signed) James A. Miller, [seal.] Clerk Supreme Court, State of Colorado. On reading the above anyone with a spark of loyal love of country or liberty in his brain, or tint of patriotic blood in his veins, indeed, may well heave a sigh born of the puzzling query. What is the most ignominious punishment we should publicly inflict on the contemptible traitors, espe- cially the archscoundrel, who yet endeavor to deny and defend the act, unparalleled by the most profligate and de- based debaucher in the blackest annals of history? Indeed, well may the mind wander in a maze of wonder for some occult solution to explain the peculiar phenomenon or cause that force the human being to drop to such a shuddering depth of depravity and self-disgrace, and when well tired out, aimlessly chasing every phantom of the mortal imag- ination, we earnestly and thankfully feel relieved on being, by some subtle power that we cannot comprehend, forced to resolve within us that we must cease to meditate on those secret causes or divinely hidden reasons for visible or tangi- 58 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ble effects beyond our ken and ascribe them to the mysteri- ous ways of the Great Creator. For, on a little reflection in this case, is there not a plentiful supply of food for hum- ble and charitable thought? To our shallow senses do we not find two beings generated from the same mold and to all visible or human-realizing proof from similar procreant germs and, during the plasticity of the mind of youth, with similar moral, religious, secular and social training or educa- tion, leaving the impressions, according to human reason- ings and inferences, both to possess a large degree of har- mony and similitude, instead of absonance and extreme divergence ; both entering onto the stage of public life under similarly fortunate, happy and favorable auspices, if by dif- ferent avenues. Then what do we find during and after an active life? The blazings on the paths of both in life as diverse as are the solids and liquids, or as heaven and hell ! We find one brother always entertaining incomparable com- passion, if not tears, for the toiler, the downtrodden and the despised; ever freely yielding to all that which he only sought in lieu of baubling recompense and empty com- mendation, the unstudied gesture of honest admiration for duty bravely done; that natural mien from men of noble thoughts, whose bearing reflects frank esteem; that plainly reverential, open glance from noble eyes, those mirrors of the lofty soul, silently flashing, with lightning speed and certainty, purest sparks of praise, faith and hope for all things righteous, that insulate the soul against temptations of adversity's corrosion, while externally he carried the honored, if cruel, badge of war. We knew his heart was fired by a self -approving conscience, fed by purest patriotism and always tempered by noble and charitable resolve, al- though to the superficial he might have appeared as a con- queror of old, without grace or mercy, while on his famous "March to the Sea." Did fame, riches and power allure his modest ambition? No, for when the nomination for the Presidency of this glorious Republic was offered him, which by that party then, as it afterwards proved, was equivalent to an election, his reserved, retiring answer will ever remain vivid just so long as the stars and stripes float at the mast- head of State, which he was chiefly instrumental in saving, '*No, if you nominate me, I will not run; if you nominate 59 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and elect me, I will not serve." Hail to him who, having an uncoveted plethora of fame, knew its distinctive, but worthless, badge; knew, that a self -approving conscience outweighs all creation's pelf, and knew that to power but the coward's head will bow and the prevaricating poltroon pay his poisonous praise. And then when death was loving- ly and softly pressing his mortal clay, to gently ooze out his soul, to waft it on its wings to a better land, where all is truth and love, how many millions would have marched on every radii of his terrestrial home, to gently, lovingly, weep- ingly and reverentially close those eyes in death and filially kiss the lips, cold in clay, that during life such soothing, comforting, hopeful cheering, patriotic expressions helped to sound, of elevating encomium for the noble, brave and true in our direst, darkest hour of need, were it not that they were fearful lest they invade the sanctity of that home in such a trying hour ! Where assembled were those he loved as untiringly as he did his country, with that con- stancy and love, highest under heaven ! Those of his off- spring, mute with awe-stricken reverence in the sacred presence of death, tearfully awaiting to implant the last, the saddest, but the holiest kiss of love on those lips so pallid, but as guileless and as pure as the cherubic babe, charmed by nature's wondrous forms and colors, and with angelic mimicry joyously crowing in the neighboring couch! He whose memory will be revered and sacredly kept enrolled in the halo of his companions, the bright and noble patriots and martyrs of our country; revered as long as our moun- tain peaks, with coquettish fascination, secretly roll east- ward to steal the first greeting kiss from the morning sun! How describe or contrast the other ? Doubt not but we would do it were it not for the well-deserved reverence we bear for the memory of the departed, pure patriot, and will in our endeavor to forgive merely say these few words : That, while the one faithfully dedicated his life to the service of his country, and when it was in its saddest plight he was one of its most stalwart staffs, yet his magnific, unselfish devotion, personal sacrifice and starry patriotism are dwarfed into insignificance, in comparison with the enor- mity of the perfidy and crime of the other, who, being the principal factor in the cause that has sent, and is still send- 60 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ing, thousands down, down, down to vice, crime and sui- cide; and caused the lean legions, numbered by millions, to endure the keen pangs of hunger in a land of overproduc- tion, which legions, though they sincerely and rightfully mourned the patriot, will have righteous reason to rejoice when that dread spectre taps the bell and orders the other to pass in his checks and give a strict and full account of that Seyd divy. Those millions are ardently hoping for that day to fast approach, lest in their frenzy they might unwisely overstep the bounds of reason ; that day when only his name will remain that, when sounded within hearing dis- tance of the American ear, will be certain to arouse mingled feelings of due reverence for the one and cutting contumely for the other', just gratitude for the one and an apyrous hatred for the other, even at whose public picture the brain moves with an indescribable shudder, as the flesh instinctive- ly creeps at sight of a centipede or tarantula. Adding our wish with the others, and hailing with unbounded admira- tion the proverbial American magnanimity "that steps aside to let the reptile live," now we will leave this, to us, deplor- able dissertation and resume our proper subject. We find that in all the countries of the earth their finan- ciers have never agreed, even for one single day, on the proper ratio that one metal does, or should, bear to the other. And yet our money-mongers would have us follow such confused precedents, so as to keep their victims busily engaged in determining which of all those paralogizing pun- sters, or so-called great lights, should be the individual vic- timi's philosophic idol, while the usurers continued to rake in and swab up, by the aid of that caparisoned monster, interest, the nation's internal common property, or life-blood, the circulating medium, or garner the crop reaped from her sons' blood-seed, sown in the hope only of perpetuating her freedom, and mockingly styled interest on the public debt. They never make an attempt to tell us why it is that silver has declined in price or commercial value, or why it cannot be maintained at a ratio of sixteen to one with gold in the European markets, which is simply because the French Gov- ernment, as well as our own, have closed their mints to its coinage, thereby destroying the use for it, both continuous and absorbing, that, all of it coming into market hitherto 6i PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS might be put to or availed of. Just something similar to as if the ladies of the Four Hundred of New York would decry the bustle you could not get sale for them, or possibly not a dollar for a shipload of them for that especial purpose, if you tried to peddle them up and down Fifth avenue for a week. The French ratio of fifteen and one-half to one, as to its legal tender debt-liquidating qualities, yet remains within the limits of French jurisdiction, but she no longer takes all the silver that may come into her markets and coin it, but if she did so all the silver in the world within an incredibly short time would be quoted at $1.30 per ounce, as it was at least quoted at for the last 4,000 years that we know of and read about, although some of such literature had to pass through its enemies' sieve. If France, or the United States, either, or both — say, both — should open their mints to the free coinage of silver and that France should retain her" ratio of fifteen and one-half to one, it should be our policy to have free coinage at six- teen to one; that is, if we deemed it wise to keep our gold from leaving the country, in order to allay the pretended fears of our anglomamacal sapaj,ous, but neither gold nor silver can leave the country, since both are apterous, apodal, astomus and acephalous, no matter how attrahent they may be to our foreign brother bankers, except that the balance of trade is against us, a condition for which we have no logical excuse, or that we export it to pay our previously contracted and flimsily and fleetingly excused debt. But why ask France to start free coinage of silver, and thus set a price for one of our staple productions, when France does not produce one-twentieth of the amount that we do (Mulhall's statistics, 1890), or why wait for or ask any other European nation, when we produce over six times more silver than all Europe combined? Or is it not most absurd to ask our financial enemy, England, whose principal existence is derived from in- terest, to assist us? What mockery and craven cow-, ardice, when we produce 245 times more silver than she does (Mulhall, 1890) ! Why not coin our silver for our own people? Gold is not at a premium, and we have all we want to pay our debts to our European credit- 62 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ors; debts that never had a right to exist, nor never would exist but for the ignorance or knavery, or both combined, of native-born, alien financial traitors. Let us briefly examine the figures that are accessible to every one, and should be familiar to every one. The United States Treasury reports give the exports and imports for the sixteen years ending 1891, which aver- age annually $744,000,000 of exports and about $639,- 500,000 of imports, leaving about $105,000,000 per an- num in our favor; and for the forty-five years ending with 1893 an annual United States gold production of $43,000,000, or $1,890,000,000, or a total for all those years of $150,000,000 yearly, or since 1875 we had $2,400,000,000 gold rate alone to our credit, but, through the accursed bank or credit system, nearly all gone in only sixteen years to pay interest to foreigners and American aliens. Then what do we want gold for? Our people do not want it — old rags, dirty paper or old, worn-out shoes will do us, if it be a legal tender in the United States, not China. All we want any gold for is to pay for what was borrowed, through the traitorous- ly meddling interference of our own money fiends and their chief tutors, the English bankers, with our finan- cial legislation during our internal strife, when the public patriotic mind was engrossed by the one thought of the preservation of the Union. And now we say, repeal the funding act of 1870, and pay them their damnable gold and have done with them, once for all. Another of their preposterous bugaboo assertions, made in order to deter the people from ordering their mints thrown open to silver, so that their legal tender money shall be increased, so that their very life-blood may not be so unmercifully sapped by the interest-draw- ing fiends, is that, if we do, the world will dump their silver on our shores, so that all may have it for the carry- ing of it away. (I know some people that would like to have $1,000 of it stowed away in the leg of an old boot.) Well, this puts a new nose on the baby altogether. Now, heretofore we were not aware that the people of Europe in general were suffering from gout, contracted from sumptuous living or being overfed, or that they 63 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS had any more of the burdens of nature's gifts than they could very well bear up under, or even that their abnor- mal increase of wealth in very recent years had unhinged their reason, which, if such an event has truly occurred, they might in their reckless, rollicking, raving capers fling their filthy silver on our synteretic shores, so it may be prudent and advisable to keep away from the coast, for a while at least, until the rumor is corroborated or dispelled. Where would it come from, or have the people paid so much attention to political economy as to have learned and arrived at the absolute truth that there is no value in money, but what is accredited to it, or centered in it by law, and therefore would be overjoyed at the opportunity to trade off their metallic evidences or tokens for anything of real value of any reasonable amount that they could use or utilize, for just what amounts to only the four-sevenths of all their metallic money, and only one- half of their full legal tender metallic money is silver. Of course, they would not miss that, as all Europe, with the exception of Russia, produced in 1890 less than the one-tenth part of that of the United States's production of gold; or about $3,000,000. Now, if they are in such a hurry to dump one-half of their legal tender on our shore, it is high time that we hasten to dump all of both our gold and silver into the deep, dark sea, so as to prevent them from afterwards desecrating our seacoast with our own principal relic of barbarism. Should they find out at some future day that they had some to spare, for outside the United States the twenty- four principal commercial countries of the world find themselves possessed of, after 6,000 years' gathering, the magnificent sum of $3 per capita, with a population of 1,140,000,000. Approaching that day, the question may be in order. Could we absorb it? Yes! And if they all became confirmed greenbackers, we could absorb all the coin silver in the world into our circulating medium, our own included, which to-day would only amount to about $57 per capita at a ratio of fifteen and one-half to one; and not only that, but also all the coin gold of the whole world, which would only amount to about $50 per capita, 64 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS our own included, and still have use and room for $ioo more of nickel, aluminum, gold or paper money. For, at the very lowest and most moderate estimate, our real property may be set down at $1,200 per capita, the circulating medium representing only the one-sixth of our real wealth. How much has the Netherlands or France got? And our actual or real annual total produc- tion amounts to over $520 per capita, which must be ex- changed by the aid of money or individual notes dozens of times over, and then you would have only the two- fifths in circulation of your per capita production. And now we ask the question, Is there a banker or money loaner who would hesitate to loan the assured two-fifths of a crop, when the farm and crop would be hypothe- cated, as well as the integrity and life of the owner? But you may ask what would we do with $200 per capita, and who would it benefit and who would it harm? We would simply apply it in the development of our illimitable resources ; the broad acre would become fenced ; the fallow acre fertilized ; the tramp given em- ployment; the farmer given an odd holiday, when now his brain is racked with that infernal mortgage inter- est; in a word, all legitimate enterprises would have a boom, with its naturally consequent stagnation in the speculation of watered stocks and bonds, and the grovel- ing interest gatherer would find his unnatural, dishonest, lucrative occupation or business on the wane, until that day, certain as death, arrives irrevocably placing him and his nefarious avocation among the archives of past his- tory. We are told that there would be a glut of money if such was the case; but who would be injured if we had $500 per capita? Surely, it would neither eat nor drink anything; it don't smoke; neither does it chew, and a good deal of it goes to church on Sunday, but sometimes seems to forget the poor invalid in the hovel. However, it would injure no one intentionally but the professional money loaner, whose leech-like, loafing operations would cease, and he would find himself forced to get down and rustle like unto all really honest people. But it would be impossible for any nation or government to impartially 65 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS or without special privileges put more money in circula- tion than legitimate enterprise or business would demand or require. Supposing that every property owner or holder could obtain from government only one-sixth or one-tenth of the valuation of his property in the form of a loan at i or 2 per cent, per annum, the interest to be applied to the support of the general government, etc., the property to be appraised even on a European valu- ation basis? This method of finance would certainly hurt no one, with the exception of the money monger, until he would learn that he deserved no more special privileges than other common mortals; then it would cease to hurt him, and he could join in the general hallelujah arising from a people freed from the cankering curse of usury. We are told by otherwise sincere men that, a nation having more than its distributive share of the world's money, it would leave the country that had more than its share, or otherwise it would seek some other country. It is rather strange how otherwise intelligent men, who enter deeply into the ancient monetary system, full of hope that they can unravel its intricacies and set ail things right, so that we can pay a $1 debt with a dime, that on emerging from the meshes of low cunning and savage-divined theories, that they all, without exception, unmistakably betray forceful indications of tottering rea- son, brought about by the entangling, meaningless array of statistics flatly contradicting their theories and by the brain-whirling evidence of the diametrically opposite con- clusions that each unfortunate separately arrives at. As to the distributive share of money, passing around as though seeking the poor and needy, which would not be more wonderful nor the expression more ridiculous than the above assertion, which cannot be backed by the facts, well proved and known to exist; but possi- bly the gentlemen who last year made the assertion in the United States Senate honestly believed it at the time, or through the excitement of debate simply made a mis- take and meant the opposite. By looking at the August, 1893, United States Mint report any fool can find that France, with one-thirtieth of the population of the 66 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS twenty-five principal countries, has' but little less than the one-fourth of the gold and more than the one-sixth of» the silver of all the principal countries of the earth, with only a population of 39,000,000, while the other 1,170,- 000,000 have the other three-fourths of the gold and five- • sixths or less of the silver. And Australia, with only 4,000,000, or the one-three hundredth part of the popula- tion, has the one-thirty-fifth part of the gold of the world, and so on with other countries. Now, these coun- tries have eight times their distributive share of the world's money. Why don't it seek other climes and more genial spirits? Besides, France only some twenty years ago had to pay to Germany a sum amounting to over $25 in gold per capita of her own population, and yet has $20.52 in gold per capita. The reason it don't is simply because the balance of trade is in their favor generally — or, in other words, they produce more than they consume, and the amount of foreign interest that they may be cursed with. Gold, or silver, or brass, or paper money cannot leave a country, except doled out by charity, if the nation is self-supporting and is not in debt to the follow- ers of Moses. And, again, no matter what volume or how much gold, silver or paper money, any or all supported by the law, that a nation may have or issue, it cannot depreciate within that country or jurisdiction when full tender, and had we the nine-tenths of all the world's gold, if we were self-supporting, it could not leave, except our anglo- maniacs cashed in their checks and hied themselves to Piccadilly or to Hades, and if the other tenth of the gold was recognized by the governments with which we dealt by the same ratio, then our gold with free coinage would have that universal bullion value, and in this connection what is true of gold is true of silver as well ; also it could be so arranged to have paper money recognized by an international exchange, but it is the finance of the United States alone that should concern us, and let us set about to establish a financial or monetary system of our own, independent of divine right, or class ideas, or the rag- picking Jews of Europe. We are told by men otherwise sincere that a govern- 67 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ment cannot make paper money as good as gold or silver money. If by that is meant that the government cannot by law create in paper such incombustible or indestructi- ble intrinsic attributes, properties or qualities, so that it would not burn, nor melt in liquids, then, and then only, we hold that they are right, for even if the government had asbestos woven or compressed into any textile fabric or paper-like sheets, and had thereon stamped the eco- nomic fiat of law, of course, it would withstand the fire and would not burn, but if society's mace was placed thereon with ink, the ink most likely, would vanish to spirit land, so we should be prepared, for those emergen- cies and run the pulp throug mold and thus either raise or sink on it the number and letters composing the money value. But we are not told why this is so that government cannot make paper as good as gold, simply because there is no conceivable reason why, for if we could not reason it out we would certainly hear all about it from monometal- lic standard advocates. And the very same people in the same breath tell us that it can be done, it has been done, and that it can be done again, as the Hon. H. M. Teller, United. States Senator from Colorado, for one stated in the Senate, October ii, 1893. Now, we believe that there is no man, in or out of the Senate, in the United States that has inquired further into ecumenic economy, or, rather, into the present credit, interest, tortuous, monetary system, that heirloom of savagery, or no man who appears more earnest in his convictions, on the surface at least, or constant in his endeavors to untangle or right a system that has brought ruin to nations, disgrace, poverty and premature death to countless millions of human beings, and madness to thousands of philanthropic, economic thinkers. But, Great Jupiter! To what can we ascribe this blazing in- consistency? Was it the lengthy journeyings among those chaotic labyrinths of conflicting theories, and the entangling, crooked, torose figures, with their ever-chang- ing significance, puzzling, harassing the brain until final- ly it has unhinged the reason. Let us hope not, and seek some other solution of the 68 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS enigma. Let us ascribe it to the following fleeting sup- position. Being convinced that the financial policy of both old parties, which are identical, regarding the amount of money that should be in circulation, is wrong, and in- conceivably detrimental to the country, and that having grown old in affiliation with one of these parties, and be- lieving that nearly all available and good presidential tim- ber in that party has been chopped down, and if ever it hopes to succeed they must fish around for some plain, open, fearless and true American to carry their standard. Knowing all this, who knows but ambition throbs within, generated by the hope that his opposite but party con- temporaries are fast becoming convinced that the make- shift policy of a total inadequate metallic increase that he advocates is right, and that they, being known until now to be hostile to such a policy? Oh, how great are the possibilities ! And if nothing more than, oh, but just a few short weeks to fully realize and enjoy that esoteric hap- piness that springs from pursuit and hopeful expectancy to that supernatant individual smiled on by the god of chance, a dark horse ! How, then, could he fly in the face of fate and anger the gods by exposing and dwelling at length on the whole truth ? In looking over the record again we are further con- vinced that the foregoing conclusion is not or cannot be altogether groundless, and certainly do admire the highly excusable and eminently laudable ambition of the secret aspirant. But not so. The cunningly and craftily devised qualifications are as misleading and indefinite as any ad- vocate of the gold standard could possibly have left them in, which would go to show that he must have intended to give the banking element of the country to understand that his former truthful assertion was almost an irredeem- able mistake and wholly unintentional on his part. After- asserting that paper money could, had, and could again be made as good as gold, he hastens to say that it must be under certain conditions, and that the condi- tions must be all favorable ; also in something like gold standard jargon he talks about too much of it being in a country. So we are at full liberty to surmise what those conditions might be. Wonder if thev are such conditions 69 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS as exist in France! Those might do, as that country is a Republic and is the most prosperous Httle nation in the world. But, then, we would like to disband that big army and increase her territory seventeen times over. Or such conditions as exist in Germany. If they are the conditions required in order to have absolute inter- changeable paper money — oh, no ! Then we do not want any; just give us iron or gold money, and please do not mention our name at all in connection with the sub- ject. Or such conditions as exist in Holland or Spain. What! A kingdom or a monarchy! Not much; we do not want any. Just demonetize everything and we will carry on all business with individual notes, as we carry on nearly everything individually. Or such conditions as exist in Italy or Greece? Oh, God forbid! Hold — that's enough ! Now, all these countries have full legal tender paper, interchangeable with gold or silver, and none of it, even at a discount, and only the four countries — Turkey, Egypt, Australia and China — that have no paper money, but all the rest in the world have, like ourselves, uncov- ered paper money. The England bank note is absolutely as irredeemable as the greenback of 1862, although it is exchangeable for gold at the bank, but that rests with the pleasure of the Bank of England. If they deem it wise not to exchange it, all that is required is to drag out that "letter of license" from the privy council and give it some fresh air, or proverbial London fog, when specie payment is suspended and paper is better than gold. But the people of England want no more gold than we do, except to settle their balances with foreigners, and there are $20 of paper circulation to one of gold. Perhaps the conditions indirectly referred to are those unfortunate circumstances that surrounded us in 1862. We will not endeavor to depict or enumerate them, but ask the shade of Lincoln, whither is that party drifting? To our feeble understanding it seems that we are sur- rounded by the most auspicious and propitious circum- stances and conditions of any people or country in the history of the globe for carrying out any gigantic innova- tion in any way calculated to alleviate or elevate the con- dition of mankind. A people surrounded with such a 70 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS bounteous supply of nature's gifts, lacking only honor- able human duty, common justice; masters of more po- tential wealth and annual production than any other nation on the earth, in this or any other age, lacking only a sufficient, felicitous exchanging medium, it matters not what may be its material composition. But the issue of legal tender paper money would be no innovation, as every child out of swaddling clothes is aware of an issue that is practically in effect in almost every nation of the world. Bankers and fools but fear an overissue of legal tender or absolute money, whether paper or metallic. There never was, and doubtless never will be, an overissue of full tender money in any country in any age, and well you all know that no government can put in circulation more money than the legitimate demands of commerce require, and that no economic writer of note, unhampered or un- influenced by banking interests, ever plainly made such a statement, and any that ever did, their paralogizing can be refuted with childlike ease. The whole financial ques- tion is simply a contest for supremacy between the many and the few ; between reason and justice, and oppression and wrong. It may readily be resolved into the question, Will the credit system of to-day prevail and end in an ex- terminating social revolution, or will it be abolished and our present civilization proceed on progressive lines with- out future halt? A government, within its own jurisdiction, can make paper money just as good as gold, and even more desir- able, and it cannot make gold, or silver money, either, for any other nation, as the money of one country is but metallic bullion in any other country and has but a com- mercial value, which value arises relatively from the use given it by coinage as money, and by the legal price set on it by the law. If paper money alone, or in company with gold and silver, or all three, are clothed with full legal tender and similar powers, they must be as good as each other as long as that government exists. If the money is made from paper only, it gives that paper a tendency to be sought after by its own citizens more than the gold and 71 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS silver of other nations would be by their citizens, because of the fact of the proportionate decrease of value in the gold or silver by the act of its demonetization by a great government in destroying the opportunity it once had for use as money in that country, just as silver fell in price on account of the destruction of its free coinage bene- fits or use. This paper money would not circulate as money in other countries, but would be exchangeable at a discount, the same as our gold coin is now, if the countries in which it was offered had commercial relations with the nation issuing it, or somewhat similar to that, as our ne- gotiable bonds have now an above par value to-day in foreign countries, while that bond is but paper and a debt, just like the Treasury note, but bearing interest, simply because those nations are possessed with a firm belief that this country would redeem their paper with the nec- essary grub, provided that they would only cook it them- selves. If all the nations agreed that an international congress would provide all countries to the pact with a per capita amount of international and interchangeable paper money, based on their wealth, population, area and resources of all kinds, then that paper money would be a better and more desirable international money than gold, which arrangement could be more easily arrived at than the adoption of the single gold standard and work less hardship on society in general. All indications bid fair for the adoption of such a paper money, at least by the first half of the next century. We sometimes hear that the time may come when we, or the world, will have a superabundance of money. Oh ! Please do tell us about when do you expect that time, gentlemen, so that we can trade ours off for ice, or crys- tallized, frozen realities. Now, will not the trader, in whose business and unearned profits you take such a deep interest, as against the honest due of the industrial com- munity — we mean the banker — not loan the one-third the amount of the valuation of a piece of property to the owner, when that propetry is hypothecated for the loan? Of course, no one should find fault with this deal, particu- larly as it is in the interests of, and sanctioned by, your 72 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS clients, the bankers. Very well, then, on that very basis there can never be too much money in circulation while any property owner in the United States (we hope to be pardoned for taking more interest in the affairs of this country than in that of Turkey or the Kingdom of Basha- land) cannot readily, any and every day in the year, bor- row the one-third of the valuation of his property, at an expense to him, or interest to cover the cost of issuance, regulation and any ether clerical aid required, say, at the extraordinary expense of i or i^ per cent, per annum. How much would this amount to? About $400 per capita. But, as every one knows, if the banks owned all the money, and had the absolute control of the regu- lation of interest, they would issue that much, so that really it is not the amount in circulation that annoys them, but the ownership of it all and the full control of interest. We believe that such an amount would not be required and might be set down as. an overissue, but it could not injure anyone, commercially or physically, except the cost of its issuance — that is, if the people in common owned it, to whom it rightfully belongs, and had it stored away in general United States storehouses ; it would nor eat anything ; neither would it rust. But, suppose that the same 3,000 banking concerns were considered, by competent judges, to outweigh in importance, wealth and integrity the some 70,000,000 of people of which that 3,000 was the waiting fraction, and that the 70,000,000 had decided to start a co-opera- tive bank of their own, and that, being told that they were not competent to safely judge of their own affairs, and that they must endeavor to be rigidly impartial in dealing with themselves and in order to loan themselves their common, civilizing agent, their common, public, national medium of exchange — money — they must put up six times the actual security of the amount of the nominal value that the individual may desire to borrow to culti- vate or develop his property or move his products from field to mart and that they heed the sound advice? How much would that leave issued ready for circulation, stort.1 and locked away in their vaults, where it could not run riot in Europe, chasing the degenerate scions of feudal 7Z PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS barons in their made career of tiger-tail pulling and bac- chanalian orgies, to be loaned on good and sufficient secur- ity at I per cent, per annum? Would it not leave over $200 per capita, estimating our wealth from an envious, European standpoint, and nobody discommoded but those who tried to turn the Ternple into a gambling den. If paper and either metal, or both, were the full legal tender money of the country on equal terms by law, the metallic money could not decrease by leaving the coun- try, except that we purchased more abroad than we sold abroad, and then the metal money would only exchange at the ratio adopted by the countries with which we dealt as bullion, no matter what amount we put in the token pieces or what names we gave them at baptism. And the more we increased our absolute national tender paper, the more we decreased the purchasing power of our metallic money or increased the price of all commodities, nominally measured by money, as the price or purchasing power of all money is measured by its volume. Here we have another evidence of the operations of the law, as regards money in kind, arising from that part of the law which regulates its volume ; the law that at first cre- ated value and in the gold regulated its vacillant measure of commodities, without any further expressed' law re- garding it, by increasing the volume of its competing money, no matter what the material it may be composed of, it decreases the purchasing power of gold, although the composition may be paper, turquoise stones or toad- stools. The mention of the above materials reminds us of what a gentleman friend of ours related to us as having occurred to him, or, rather, that he experienced while visiting in Washington and listening to a speech delivered in the Senate, October 23, 1893, on the financial question. He said that he felt one of the most peculiar and unaccount- able sensations of his life, produced, he believed, from the strangely enervating and escharotic intonation of an interruption by some one, which seemed to him to come from a voice of ages past, or from out a tired-waiting grave, the words being lost to him, but the last few of which were: "A certain kind of Russia iron." Becom- 74 PLAIN ECONOMIC. FACTS ing strangely interested, we hunted up the record and found the words alluded to. Being so deeply impressed with the easy philosophy and moving conclusions by the deliverer of those words, as is plainly shown in the full interruption, we would consider ourselves extremely cul- pable and derelict of our plain duty and totally incapable of appreciating in the slightest degree the profound reason- ing and happily devised avenue presented for the relief of a nation in distress contained in that interruption if we should fail to embrace the opportunity, whenever it presented itself, of congratulating the people of that State on their extremely happy and fortunate selection in choosing such a one that the interposing Oracle had hailed from. Proud not alone of that probationary, saint- ly Oracle may they feel! But how can common mortals rest without attempting to pay a passing tribute of reverence to that State for preternatural phases in its past history that human beings ne'er proposed. Indeed, well may that State consider itself suppletively elevated and feel proud, not of having a fertile, stony soil, but that Rock, within her imaginary sacred limits, on which them living Martyrs to that free- dom of thought they would only deny to others made their accidental landing while seasick, falling, to thank their God, prostrate on the ground, face upwards, in unison with their now, at last, realized, past hopes; that they found a land inhabited by a barbarous, but more noble minded race of savages than they, wherein they now could rear temples to the glory of Him who had deliv- ered them and by a tempest cast them on the Rock and then build themselves a home. Ah! what a bountiful, peaceful, sublime, loving home ! But how utterly incom- parable and insignificantly dwarfish to that studiously eclectic and long and sesthetically devised home con- structed by their illustrious and noble progeny for their journeying brethren in Christ ! That home, whose gigantic walls defy admensuration, the very crystalline purity and beauty of which, by the desecrating hand of man, if possible, is rendered more inspiring. And that roof! A glance at it shocks and staggers the conceited mind that glitters with the polish 75 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of fine sense, yet lacking sensibility. And those lights in that home! Though man sees them and, beholding, enjoys their light, yet their cause and composition passes the power of the mind to conceive. Oh ! that we could but do justice in describing the heavenly divined propor- tions and beauties of this home, whose selection and erection was prompted by that ever-hopeful passage, "Blessed are the poor, for their lodging shall be heaven- ly." Yes, that home ! And their wandering brethren in Christ! The welkin-covered, starlit stone quarry! And the tramp! For a pillow with an old shoe, lodge! Being so overcome with admiration and amazement at the splendor of the little bit of oratory and the illimit- able measures of philosophy it contained, that from be- fore our mind the magnitude or sublimity of its aptness it would not down, but fitfully aroused the brain, while the balance of the body laid yet dormant. Yes, it haunt- ed us in our sleep so that we dreamt that in a city we saw an aged human form, which at first we mistook for Father Time himself; he was standing visibly astonished and intently scanning, with unconcealed surprise, at something that none in the crowd could divine, but a newsboy who was endeavoring to forcingly coax the ap- parently bewildered, old gentleman out of harm's way, who was racking his brain trying to discover what virtue or secret could be in that piece of iron. As it happened to be a piece of railroad track, on which the electric print- ing press and train passed over as it made its hourly rounds of the globe, soon being due on its horal mid- night round, hence the anxiety of the boy, to whose aid we now came, and in conversation with the old gentleman soon learned : That in youth he had stuffed the mind with traditional husks and legendary chafi', because, being inordinately ambitious, he thought that he had too many competitors at that stage of life who sought actual truths and whole- some judgment, based on common justice, to guide their thoughts in after life, therefore thought, with others in his class, that there was a surer opening on the side of jugglery and chicanery, and that now the sterile brain had become so ossified, stereotyped and 8:rooved similar- 76 ' PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ly with fuscus-colored metal that iron was always held before the brain as in a mirror, and that all progressive inventions and ideas innovated since the iron age were mysteries to him. We were moved to pity for the nice- looking clean, old man. Suddenly remembering that once or twice we saw him casually chat a moment with Gar- rison, Phillips, Sumner and others, we recognized him, and through reverence for the memor}^ of those that are gone we placed him in charge of the conductor of the moving sidewalk, and told the latter where to set him off. He proved to be no other than that imposing volume of reek, the eminent, hoary-haired Hoar from Mass. The delusion was so real-like that our singular dream haunts us still. On awakening and feeling so tired from the night's journey, we tried to compose our thoughts for the day's task, but naturally they reverted north, to the scene of our late ethereal (or disordered stomach) experience. And across the mind flashed the resurrection of our first impressions of Boston. Alas ! How fallible and vacillant is man! Oh, then, for that flashing instant, how keenly we remembered our first glorious, soul-melt- ing tears of joy that rolled down our cheeks when first reading the history of that Boston Tea Party, the out- come of an opposition to the imposition of a tax that could not hold a candle to that now exacted by a horde of coxcombical, dudish parrots of our own creation, who but love and live to rob and mock us. These tears were now changed to that of cold and bitter sorrow at the thought of the incongruity of our precepts and practices, and we could not refrain from exclaiming, Old, obsolete, lethargic Boston ! How appropriately would thy pet name suit thee — "Hub of the Universe" — if our wheels of locomotion were now, as then, the wheels of the Red River Cart, into whose composition no true American mettle (metal) enters, nor Russia iron, either; whose shrewish screak may be heard where it can't be seen ; that annoying nuisance of irregular, disagreeable and screech- ing sound that receives far more invective than the worn- out, primitive contrivance that produced it does obtain attention! With what seeming fitness these pilgrims, seeking a special God and a common Mammon, named 77 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS some of your towns when, for instance, they called one the river of the Fallen, where the spindle and the loom, through the speculators in human attributes, should hud- dle humanity together in order to become versed in mys- teries of vice and baffling crime ; where the modern Mark Antony may be found popping beans and grinding poodle sausage. In this connection we believe kind "Providence" has re- minded us of that little clam farm, Rhode Island, from which some officious individual succeeded in advertising himself by saying that, "The price of commodities in one nation practically fixes the price in all nations, and that you cannot maintain high prices in this country, ex- cept you have depreciated money (just the very thing the people want), and disjoint our money from the money of the world" (as though it was not now disjointed). Great Scott! Such incoherent babble, coming from a land where the wives of the henpecked husbands utilize their pet baby cats to set on eggs and hatch out chickens to save the fruitful evipositing time of the mother "cluck"! Is not such silly, senile, economic expressions, made in the Senate of a great nation, a very sad illustration of the degeneration of the human mind when surrounded by the insanity-inciting pomp of polished robbery, and when also foully fooled by the flattery of crafty, flatulent knaves? Attach Rhode Island to Delaware and then add two new counties to Nevada! We asked our friend what his impressions were of the one who conducted the bulldozing side of that Repeal Act — that was, Dannie Satyr, that bifacial, old, shrew- ish washwomen of the Wabash, who took care of the dirty linen of His Eminent, ponderous, obstetric Obesity, who, some say, is a constant sufferer from a strange com- plication of diseases, known only to the erudite and cul- tured as cerebric dipsomania, political tenesmus and social micturiation, or, as they cite in proof thereof, he would never indulge the noxious assuetude of causing to circulate such iliac, aerated or gaseous farmer-puzzles as innocuous desuetude. While hoping for his speedy recov- ery, we will give the answer of our friend. He replied : "Oh, yes ; before I was rightlv seated in the public gal- 78 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS lery of the chamber he was pointed out to me, with the following remarks: *Do you see that skyscraping indi- vidual?' 'Yes.' 'Well, his legs place the brain so far from the earth's surface that it reaches the centrifugal current of our atmosphere, which moves so fast that the arising aerified gases do not get time to blend or unite in that proper proportion that we find to be the relative constituent elements of our normal atmosphere, and those rapid-changing, inhaled gases have each such a differ- ent influence and cause such sudden and diverse effer- vescences of the brain that the blamelessly possessing individual, nor no one else of sound mind, wants to be, nor should be, held accountable or responsible for what is done or said by the lank individual, unfortunately con- demned to carry such brains under such tall, volatile, whirling conditions. For it may be seen that the fast, evanescent thoughts of the brain, and by it forced to ex- pression like unto any of those that has been taken note of, that they belong to the realms of cosmic dust, that stray, undetermined element without a mother or any other claimant, and also belong to the fair-looking but cold and frozen elements of that upper current which, when cast to the earth, falls so gently and at first appears so bright and clear, but which never can stand, and of such apparent purity, yet cannot bear that searching, scrutinizing light of, but vanishes at the first ray of, a straightforward, impartial, honest, genial sunbeam. Well, the impression he left on me was simply this — that not only did he represent the very small half of injiannie, but, aside from his whipper-incomportment, that megrim- yielding, strummingly-stultifying air, with which he sat, or, rather, flopped, into his chair impressed me as though he must have had a proxy either from Jesus of Nazareth or else from that many-headed dog-devil Cerberus in his tail pocket to use in case one of the time-serving disciples were missing.' " It may be laid down as an axiom of political economy that the law, whether national or inter- national, creates all value, which value is extrinsic, in all money, no matter what the material from which it is struck, or of which it is composed, may be or is classed, as of any important or intrinsic worth or value; that the 79 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS law, which demands its part use as money, thereby enhances the price of that material in the proportion that the required volume to be used as money bears to its volume extant or reasonably known to exist in nature. Since the newly and past constant, legally created use provided for that material absolutely withdraws it from those other uses to which it can be applied to that amount required as money, by bringing in a new competitor to the field of application and purchase. While the mate- rial is used as money, mankind is prohibited from enjoy- ing any of the utilitarian benefits claimed for it of intrin- sic properties; consequently the art, etc., intrinsic quali- ties of money are lost to man forever while used as money, and that part of the metal not in use has propor- tionately increased duties to perform, which tends to in- crease the price, and its legal and enhanced price may deter people from enjoying the benefits to be derived from its intrinsic qualities, which otherwise they might avail themselves of. If by coinage of gold as money soci- ety is robbed of the inestimable benefits of its intrinsic qualities, then, for God's sake, stop the crime and substi- tute it by aluminum, copper or nickel, if not "Russia iron!" . 80 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART 11. HONEST MONEY GRESHAM LAW. Gresham law. — Davy Jones. — International paper money. — Hoard- ing gold. — Tommy Gresham. — European governments virtually say. — Postscript. — Quelque Monsieur ait voulut. — Inquire in Europe. — A fair proposition. — Prof, Soetbeer's statistics and U. S. statistics or mint reports. — Europe's gold, silver and paper money, and per cap. — The fi,gure of our foreign trade. — Honest money. — How dishonest. — New financial system. We often hear people expose their ignorance of the subject of finance by quoting for those who have never paid any attention to the subject some highly entertain- ing and enlightening catch-phrases for the benefit of the latter, who, it appears, have infinitely more reasonable judgment than the former in matters of the kind, and which phrases the former assert are extracts from the "Gresham law," the same as if it had been an all-impor- tant law of finance, respected and adopted by all writers and financiers ; but there is no such thing as "Gresham law\" Long ago there lived in England a man of the name of Tommy Gresham, and he wrote a book on finance, and he did the best he could — that is, for his light and the light of his day, which was a tallow candle — and in his book he quoted from others, or else he plagiarized, and that is all there is to it, something like what is briefly explained in paragraphs 95 and 96. But they quote him as saying that cheap money will drive out dear money, but quote it thus only when they wish to leave the im- pression that it is for this reason they fear that paper and silver money will drive out gold. What a bowdy-man they raised to scare the child ! But in their great rush for some excuse they overlooked real cheap money, so great was their hurry, and they forgot all about nickel and copper. If no other country but this had gold and silver, or double standard free coinage, whatever we purchased of 81 PLAIN ECONOMIC. FACTS them or sold to them, then all such transactions would be computed in gold. If there was a balance in our favor, they paid us in gold or goods, and if there was a balance in their favor, we paid them in gold or goods like^vise, so gold could not leave the country, except that we pur- chased more than we sold. Whenever we buy from for- eigners what we can produce, or for whatever luxuries we purchase from them, it is a pity they cannot charge us ten times more than they do to their other alienees, for they never buy from us but what they cannot exist without, or else they must fast and pray 365 days a year. If any country with which we dealt had free coinage of silver, say, at a similar ratio to ours, then our silver bullion would be worth as much at that ratio as gold bullion in their country; but if ours was sixteen and theirs fifteen and one-half to one, then their silver, weight for weight, being only so reckoned between nations, would be dearer than ours, for one ounce of gold, or, say, $20, could only buy fifteen and one-half ounces of silver in their country, but it would buy sixteen ounces in this country, so our importing merchants or establishments of exchange would ship our silver over there when com- pelled to pay a balance in their accounts. For instance, by buying here the worth of thirty-one ounces gold of our silver, which would be 496 ounces, which in a country with fifteen and one-half to one would be worth thirty- two ounces of gold, so our merchant would make one ounce gold, or $20, profit by the transaction ; this is why that under such conditions silver would leave the coun- try. If we have a ratio of fifteen to one, and the people we dealt with had fifteen and one-half to one, then our gold would be sent instead of silver, because $20 in gold would buy fifteen and one-half ounces silver in their country, while it would only buy fifteen ounces in ours, so, by tak- ing gold there and buying silver with it and the one-half ounce profit in fifteen, this time one ounce in thirty would be made. Simply that money is sent out of a country that is most appreciated by law or dearest in that coun- try to which it is sent. Again, let us reverse' it. If we had sixteen to one, and they had fifteen and one-half to 82 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS one, then they would ship their gold here to settle their balances; or if they wanted to buy silver, or if a broker in bullion had an opening for a large amount over there, he could make about sixty-five cents per pound gross at that ratio difference by shipping the gold over here, pur- chasing and shipping the silver back to the country with fifteen and one-half to one. If we had an arrangement arrived at by a republican conference, consisting of the republics of the world, which conference would have some sense and 'consist- ency about it, for an international paper money, with the name and amount printed on each piece or note or bill in the language of all the republics to the pact, then that paper money would be as good as gold in each of the countries, and would save the more expensive shipment of any bullion or its loss by sinking, as the records of the numbers and series of the notes could be kept, and if lost their substitutes could be reissued at little cost. One or more of the articles of agreement should stipu- late or provide that in no case should any corporation or individual be allowed to charge any interest or incre- ment, or increase or stoppage, by any method whatever, to any government, corporation or individual for a loan of such money of any amount. But the government to whom it was issued for distribution, by loan on good se- curity, to its own citizens or otherwise, might charge i or 2 per cent, per annum to defray the expense of emis- sion, records, etc. ; any other but that government loaning it to forfeit right of collection, with penalty, etc.; such money to be full legal tender in any, either or all coun- tries for any or all debts, dues and demands, etc., etc. Again, it is asserted that gold will be hoarded if we have free coinage of silver. Yes ; but it is the bankers who hoard it, and all other kinds at times, for the pur- poses of speculation. But if all other people would hoard it it could not well be wondered at, for, since we are only too well aware that people have always hoarded gold (so it is said, at least, but in China they hoard silver), and particularly in this country since the war, for they wished to be prepared for the regular panic and knew not what 83 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS day it might be here — which bank panics are the natural sequence of the decrease of the circulating medium, whether legal or by law, or artificial by speculation, by the banks contracting or otherwise, or the increase of population or business, without relative increase of money — but they were certain such days would come from what they have experienced by the almost daily tinkering with our financial laws for the past thirty years or more. They also knew that England has only a gold (and paper) standard since 1816, and other countries now for the past twenty years or more, and they knew not with any certainty what or who to believe, since they became aware that in our very midst, and even in the Congress of the nation, such traitors could be found as to demone- tize some $600,000,000 of full legal tender silver, without deigning to acquaint the owners, the people, of the fact, and do it, like a thief or burglar, in the night. They want to be prepared lest the same traitors — some of whom have the supreme gall not only to venture out from some secret penitential crypt, but are still active in public life. All hail the great American people, who practically illustrate such sublime philosophy and char- ity by stepping aside in order to "let the reptiles live !" Yes, the same may demonetize g-old as well, in order to, or in the hope of, precipitating the country into some calamitous turmoil in order for them to accomplish some other of their fiendish designs ; so they hoard their gold in the hope of some other nation recognizing its mone- tary bullion value at that nation's ratio. They hoard it also because the price of a given bulk of gold represents some twenty-eight times the same bulk or volume as that of silver, thus rendering its cache less conspicuous than the silver one could be, as also less risk incurred through danger of dstruction than that to which paper money is liable. If the}^ would hoard money more than they do and trust banks or corporations less, they would be better off than they are to-day, and we would have more money in circulation than we have now and far less stagnation in all 84 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS industry. They hoard it also because they hear nothing but gold, gold, gold, through the daily advertising, blanket-sheets, and if by chance they have read to them a purchased editorial — ahem ! — in a dodger of the both subsidized and monopolized press, whose every column is reeking with the glowing and laudatory accounts of the three principal agents of Satan — murder, scandal and gold — so gold is dinned into their very existence, for the vociferous agi- tation of its name is supernally vibrating the very atmos- phere they breathe. So is it any wonder that gold disappears, or has dis- appeared, during recent years, or is supposed to leave the country? If the cheaper silver would drive the gold out of the country, why did it not drive it out since 1873, for every European country since demands gold from us in payment for anything and everything that we either buy or owe them, but, instead of driving out gold, we have more gold now (1894) than we had in 1873, having now $604,000,000, or more than any European nation except France. And whether we have free coin- age of silver or not, we have to pay them in gold either way for anything we chance to owe them. So, as to our silver legal tender driving out their bullion legal tender, gold, when it may have to go, whether silver or no, the gauzybosh of the so-called Gresham law is so evident that the phrase, cheap and dear money, in that connec- tion, should give way on the stage for something fresh, if it was nothing more than the "pas de ventre." So about all there is in the titular Gresham law may be summed up in about this way : That a sane man with an eye to business would sell his pork in France if he could get there one-half cent per pound more than he could get in Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Hellgate. Oh, beg pardon! By the way, I never hear this sup- posed Gresham law quoted but it reminds me of a man of the name of Tommy Gresham, English by birth, with curly, red hair a foot long, who always kept a good-sized chamber in his attic vacant, but intended for the occupa- tion of that amaranthine alkahest, of the cringing cuUion, known as polished politeness and eclectic etiquette, and 85 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS brings vividly to my mind, as he related to me, long ago, his thrilling experiences, away back in the early fifties, when he first, in company with others, explored Califor- nia Gulch. The one that interested me most was that, when he was compelled to pay $1.25 per pound for his flour — the legal tender being gold dust and nuggets, as yet unstamped, but to which the mints were open and the general price pronounced by law — and as he naively remarked that the flour he was buying then, in the nine- ties, at 1%. cents per pound, had just as much intrinsic properties or value as the flour he paid one hundred times more for, or $1.25 per pound, I always thought that here was a good opportunity for the untutored savage to feel intrinsic value and to apply some of the financial theories of the world's bullion, cheap and dear m.oney, and very high priced flour of unchanging intrinsic value. But we may praise the Lord for being saved from ever again hearing such fabulous facts from Tommy Gresh- am's law, for we believe he long since turned up his toes. We sometimes hear the scintillating savants of social science give, as smickering as sombrous, a solution of their significantly, shuflling explication in regard to what constitutes an honest dollar, from which their surround- ings and circumstances may as clearly be divined as their definition is opaque ; for instance, there is one Davy Jones down in Alabamy that occasionally the indigenous swamp residents, with sportive familiarity, hail as guv'na, whose explanation by proxy is somewhat as follows : "Coined metal which contains sufficient valuable bullion to assert itself in the markets of the morld at the face value stamped upon it by government, without regard to any further act of that government, or whether it be solvent or insolvent or afterwards ceases to .exist." (The italics ai-e ours.) Then, why coin it all? Avoid that expense by having the refiner run it into circular tablets or pellets of different weights, by which it is determined in the markets of the world, if they are to be preferred to the markets or the people of the United States? He leaves others to deter- mine or speculate as to what kind of value he requires in 86 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the bullion; if intrinsic, and we wanted to buy fifty pounds of iron in England, then our honest dollar would have to weigh fifty pounds in gold, which would only yield more ocean freight traffic. If legal money, vision- ary or verbal face value, stamped by nearly all govern- ments on it, which is the only value in it, and which is supposed to enable it to assert itself, which action by European governments in effect or virtually says : Dear Sir — Your honest dollar money is not our honest thaler, franc, florin, or rouble money,* but if you have any gold bullion, which at present wf are allowed to coin into pieces of given weight and fineness, according to established custom, and therefore we will take it and coin it, at that ratio, from and for our citizens only who have traded you for it merchantable commodities at cur- rent market rates, fixed by the different material-moneys — gold, silver and paper — that we are permitted to keep for the benefit of our own people, so as to keep up the price of their productions to that, or above, if possible, the world's current market price. We know that there is not gold enough in the world to carry on its business or commerce with, and to main- tain the price of labor and commodities that our people are accustomed to, and which estimates or valuations are so firmly established in their minds, that it would be dangerous for us to attempt the experiment of trying to disabuse their minds of such, except by gradual stages. As you are well aware, that if there was gold enough in the world to carry on its trade, why, we would demone- tize it or close our mints to its further coinage. We need not say any more on that score. We said that we were permitted to accept and coin gold, but for that miserable privilege we are strictly bound for to exact gold from foreigners, even our best allies; but for this interdicting order we would gladly take your honest paper or silver dollar. You ask why, being under pecuniary obligations, or in debt to, and *The Czar of Russia, by ukase, changed the legal value of the rouble February 6, 1897. 87 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ever standing in constant dread of foreclosure and its inevitable bankruptcy by usurers, we simply have to bow the head or bend the knee at their every command ; they are well aware of the limited volume of gold in nature, and that it would require over twenty times its known volume to supply sufficient currenc)^ to carry on the busi- ness of the world at the present current market rates in their present relation to the established purchasing, meas- uring or exchanging powers of the legal fiat, inscribed or stamped on regulated weights or stipulated pieces of gold. Therefore, they allow us to coin it for use by our people with the. other money, but with the exaction that it be recognized only as international bullion to outsiders. This exacting condition is placed upon us by the usur- ers, who hope thereby to deter all governments from in- creasing their silver and paper full legal tender circula- tion to a much greater proportion than the total volume of their gold amounts to ; they hope, by keeping this buccinal bubble of cheap-dear-honest-international-intrin- sic-world-market value before the people, and loudly sounding in the ears of those that they have played, are now, and will play, for suckers, and by purchasing rene- gade, rantering politicians that they can keep up such a dinning and damnific racket that the voice of honesty and reason will be drowned for generations to come, but sometimes the moth comes too near the candle and him and his generation end. Thus, by keeping down or decreasing the volume of money, they know that it increases the purchasing power of their principal, gold, and enables them to regulate and demand from the industrious producer, that knows not how to take things easy, whatever per cent, of his pro- duction or interest that they deem wise, which is generally only enough allowed to be retained by him to maintain the muscular or physical powers of the body and the brain, in an active animal condition, so that he may con- tinue to keep them reveling in luxury and immoral pleas- ures. This is mostly why we cannot now take your honest dollars of paper or silver at present. But our ardent hopes ever keep us watching westward 88 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to that great and glorious Republic of the United States, so fortunately situated, and possessing more potential wealth and producer of more monetary-token-metals than any other nation of the earth ; and we fervently hope that, through the wisdom and patriotism of your statesmen, some other monetar}^ system will be devised and perfected other than that credit-interest system, which is the curse of all soci- ety and the cause of all our strife and woes; which has caused our children to exile themselves from the Father- land of their native home, and to seek in your loving country that comfortable existence that by the usurers was denied them in the land of their birth ; and, indeed, we have keenly and sensibly felt the generous justness of the practice and teachings of your institutions, which made it possible for those exiled sons of ours to, in a great measure, support their aged parents here, worn out from performing that inexorable task of maintaining usurers, rendering those past laborers pensioners, as it were, on the generosity and equal chance of Republican institutions ; and may that new system be our salva- tion by delivering us from that thralldom, which prac- tically renders us serfs to the avaricious, unconscionable, debasing and degenerating will of the money-loaning monster, and end in our adopting a separate or universal republic, and for the perpetuation of such heavenly hu- mane institutions we shall ever pray. Yours fraternally, but in secret, Secretary Typical European Government. P. S. — A rumor published in our daily monopolistic press having come to our notice — but which, really, we do not believe — asserts that there are some misguided and traitorous individuals to be found in the United States who would feign foist upon you, and, if possible, eternally rivet upon you, that demoniacal monetary sys- tem from which we are now suffering the tortures of the damned. Lest there should be a shade of truth in the rumor, we take this opportunity to imploringly beg of our exiled children to never disgrace those they left behind, enduring the teeming hardships, flowing from such a 89 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS social blight on progress, universal liberty, truth, knowl- edge and benevolence, by ever assisting by thought, word or action such traitorous fiends as thus might ever en- deavor to destroy those institutions, the universal benevo- lence of which we have felt and even tasted through you, our exiled wanderers, still loved, and not forgotten. Yours, etc., Sec. Now w^e wish to say to all the Joneses that, having eaten so much fog in our young days, that, by aeromancy we know that Davy owns twenty transatlantic steam- ships, busily engaged in carrying on his vast commerce with European countries, and therefore highly qualified to define an honest European dollar. Ten of his ships are explosive oil tank steamers, which, if the intrinsic racket worked properly, might be remodeled into a safer carrying commodity, gold freight; the other ten are sundry freight and passenger. Now, what makes him hot is, on one of his recent trips he had a silver dollar with him, in which a hole was punched, a string passed through and tied, and then hung around his neck; while he rarely saw one, he loved the color. Becoming short of cart wheels and remembering the hoodoo charm, he tried to have it cashed, when, lo! he found that all the European mints were closed to silver and he would either have to carry it back or take its commodity price for it, about fifty cents, or two and one-half francs. He chewed the air a little, but the polite Frenchman told him, as an assuaging snowball to the rage, that if by the law of chance that piece of silver happened to be in France before she closed the mints it would have been coined into a five-franc piece, and that then it would be legal tender for $i worth of peas or champagne quelque Monsieur ait voulut. Strange, was it not, that his piece of silver, which was heaviest, was not legal tender; it was round, milled on the edge, had a device or motto, and a nice picture on it, just like the other, only the other was legal tender, so now, if he could induce the Frenchman to swap pieces with him, he would be two and one-half francs ahead; he tried, but failed, and was told that he must not forget 90 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that Americans were not making financial laws to gov- ern any European country, and that out of the fourteen European countries that ten of them had full legal tender silver money for their own special use and benefit, but not for his, as he was a supposed American, and that country had closed its mints to the free coinage of silver or else they would have honored his coin at almost its face value. On making a little inquiry over there, he might have learned the astounding facts that out of the fourteen countries thirteen had full legal tender paper money, but not for his benefit, and the one that did not have it is the most benighted and the most impoverished of them all, that is Turkey; that, after centuries of the collection of gold, we find that they have the crocodile inspiring sum of $1.52 per capita, which is only legal tender, and $1.32 limited tender silver, or slave-pauper money. Strange, isn't it? While the only country we find having the single silver standard, N. B., has eleven times more gold than legal tender silver, and nearly twenty-three times as much legal tender paper as legal tender silver, that is Russia, who made platinum legal tender at one time; and most peculiar, isn't it? Another important country, whose progressiveness we should emulate, that has no silver standard and that cen- turies ago was king of the financial world, but who has only saved $8 per capita from the wreck, with more un- covered paper than gold to help her to keep up her na- tional stock of legal tender up to $17 per capita, that is Portugal, would have us recede like her. Another coun- try that would, no doubt, in your opinion be a good cri- terion to be guided by, that has %Z-7^ P^^ capita gold, $3.14 uncovered paper and no legal tender silver, is the Scandi- navian Union, about to dissolve. The fourth and last European (counted so) country •without legal tender silver is England, which, after all the blockade running, privateering, buying through her emissaries of American financial legislation and that of other countries, with 250,000,000 people of India (as well 91 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS as the United States) paying her tribute, and all other modes of robbery only known to themselves and a select few, we find her with only $1447 per capita in gold, be- sides her absolute legal tender paper money, based in part on her national debt, first contracted 200 years ago, during the reign of Silly Billy the Satyr, the half- king and half-goat, her absolute paper being exchanged by the Bank of England for gold whenever the bank feels so disposed ; the banker does so readily and willing- ly, as it is only required to settle foreign balances by her people, until he deems it to his interest to post that "let- ter of license," when gold takes off the gloves and leaves the stage, for the champion, paper money, now enters the ring. Somewhat wonderful, isn't it? Let us go over the narrow straits and have the sturdy, honest Frenchman entertain us once more, and see how things stand in that country, the last to close her mints to the free coinage of silver. We find that after paying a war indemnity of $25 per capita of her population in gold to Germany, or $1,000,000,000, that she has now nearly as much as one and one-half, or $20.52 per capita, in gold as England has, or $250,000,000 more, and more than twice as .much paper, while her silver is almost twice that per capita of the greatest silver producing country in the world, the United States; or, France, $17.95 ; the United States, $8.18, all interchangeable and full legal tender. Stunningly surprising, isn't it? Yes, but not much more so than our chances of being Guv'nah. Now let us go over and see, wie es geht, mit Unser Fritz? who at the instigation of England, and in order, as both supposed it would do, to injure France, closed her mints in 1871 to the free coinage of silver, wdiich nation, Germany, has only $2.20 legal tender silver and only $2.16 legal tender paper per capita. About this time (or probably you have never heard of it), you may re- member, Germany received from France an amount which would be more than $20 gold per capita for her population of to-day, but chiefly because it declared for that honest money of yours, we find that, with all she had previously, she had so much, you may remember 92 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS (or perhaps you have never heard of it) that she actually demonetized gold in 1857, ^^ well as the $20 per capita she received, that she has only now $12.12 gold per capita remaining. Poor Hans! Astonishing, isn't it? How it will assert itself in the markets of the world, with all these countries solvent and still existing! All persons wishing and hopefully watching for the in- solvency of their country, and untiring in their lifelong efforts to have it placed in the historical records of the nations of the past, might consistently endeavor to have all money tokens confined to that material, recognized to- day as a European international bullion, gold, by about the twenty-five principal commercial nations of the world, or possibly he might wish it made of silver, influ- enced thus by some secret fear or hope that its future conquerors might be numbered among the other 787,500,- 000; but in case that either did not occur in time to suit him, and that gold was his favorite, and that his mind was fully made up to emigrate, the only country we know of that would stay by him would be Turkey. But before leaving it would be necessary to remember that money is not wealth, and but a medium of exchange to reduce the labor or burden of the distribution of nec- essary products or commodities, devised by the people and given sanction in law, by issue by the govern- ments, for the convenience of their own citizens only — not to be hoarded, not to equal actual wealth in volume of measures, to be doled out and kept regulated, so that every member of that society could procure, or have as near as possible a proportionate equal share in accord- ance with the legitimate, active industry or amount of business transacted in actual production or distribution, without any cost to the individual, except the cost of issuance, regulation, etc., or for the support only of the general government; if amassed or hoarded as wealth to be taxed similarly with wealth, together with a fine and penalty, for attempting to destroy its proper functions, and the same fine and penalty for attempting to charge interest for its use, which was never contemplated by society, nor never mentioned in the law creating it ; that 93 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS all money is but a circulating medium of fractional, trans- ferable, measuring evidences of representative pieces of wealth, for if it measured all wealth, then less than one-six- teenth grain of gold would be the dollar, and that dollar be the one eighty billionth part of the United States's wealth, which now can only be estimated by a relatively figurative measure, as there is not now legal tender enough in the United States to buy, at market price, the City of New York; nor in Germany to buy Berlin; nor in England to buy London. So that an advocate of honest money, if he himself was strictly honest, whenever about to emigrate to his ideal society, would only take his pro- portionate share of the gold, $9.01, the per capita circula- tion, and on arriving in Turkey would find himself es- teemed as worth six average Turks, which would render him eligible for the office of side-social chum of the Sultan, while his former Government would yet be solvent and still exist. If gold was demonetized to-morrow we would possess and receive as much gold, if not more than be- fore, for it would become proportionately cheaper, caused by the loss of its former use and demand by a great nation, whose population is but one-eighteenth of those twenty-five countries, but who now possesses more than one-sixth of it all, or three times her distributive share of the coin gold of the world. But still Davy, knowing that the volume of money in actual circulation determines the price of our merchant- able or transferable or real wealth, would have us compara- tively measure all that by a medium which is now only one- third of our volume of legal tender, solely for the purpose of reducing the price we now receive for what other na- tions are compelled to buy from us, while it is impossible for us to assist in the regulation of the price of what we could do without, that is, what we purchase from others ; or, in other words, he wishes us to conform our financial system to suit their wishes in the premises, while they strictly regulate their own afifairs to suit themselves. In those twenty-five countries we find nine of them having the gold standard ; so we have in nine others gold and silver; so have we in all the countries, except Turkey, 94 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Egypt and Australia (they have silver or paper as legal tender, so have we) ; the only country not using paper or gold as legal tender is China; they use silver; so do we; the only country in Europe not using silver or paper as legal tender is Turkey. While it must be admit- ted that we do recognize gold and silver, still we cannot claim to be strictly in it with the Turk or Chinee. Find- ing so many people using gold and silver, we cannot, therefore, consistently advocate the feeding of all our gold and silver to the alligators; not at all. While ever you find these people willing to part with whatever we covet for either or any of our productions, why, by all means, preserve and increase them ; do not attempt to dis- card or discredit them ; any of them some day may com- pose the token of an honest dollar. We are now going to make what we judge a fair proposition to the Joneses and the Stoneses, their neigh- bors, "who want a dollar only that is worth lOO cents every day, and the world over, and its representative or promise to pay as good as itself." We must deferentially inform these gentlemen again that we are not creating legal tender that the inhabitants of the globe are to be, and must be, in their several jurisdictions bound by, and that they must use no other and vice versa ; and that the equal of an absolute dollar, a legal tender for all purposes, in the country where it is issued, can only be found in another absolute dollar, and any other promise to pay cannot equal it, and cannot be as good, for it is only counterfeit money, no matter with what agreeableness or willingness it may sometimes be exchanged. Further we will state that an absolute dollar is irredeemable except by its compulsory acceptance for all dues, and, further, that a promise-to-pay dollar is never or can never be re- deemed while it is compelled to re-enter the servitude from which it was previously ransomed by crafty, decep- tive trade or swap, but it is a thievish, fraudulent, dishon- est money, because, canceling debts to the unwary, the authority for which it never received from society. Now, then, if these gentlemen will only use their hon- est and all-powerful endeavors with the other twenty- 95 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS four great powers of the earth to have them arrange it so that all will discard all of their legal terxder silver and paper money, which assists in setting a price on their good, and retain nothing but gold, which would leave them only $2.61 per capita in gold, instead of as now $7.03 of all legal tender, I think we could stand it — do you? — as our gold is $9.01, or three and one-half times as much as theirs, and we are now producing nearly the one-third of the total gold production of the world. For proof of our assertion we here give the statistics of the same, with silver also, so that we can, in the way of pri- vate information, publicly state that from 1792 to 1893 we produced two-sevenths of all the gold, in any form known to exist in the world, and only one-eighth of the silver, so we are in pretty good shape to take the advice and gratefully please the laddies and lulus of London, and the chappies and chippies, or turbaned Turks of Con- stantinople : SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS FOR MONE- TARY STUDENTS. Most men in the eastern part of the United States sup- pose that the price of silver is constantly falling, wholly because the supply is constantly increasing. Our mono- metallic writers state that such is the fact, and their readers naturally believe they are telling facts. As silver is measured in gold, under our monometallic system, of course the increase in the production of silver can be measured only by comparison with the production of gold, each by weight. We give herewith figures to show whether the claim is correct. As the ratio is now about twenty-three of silver to one of gold by value, the produc- tion should be in the same ratio by weight, if the claim of our eastern writers be correct. Our figures are taken from the United States Mint report. The following table shows that from 1493 to 1871, a period of 378 years, the production of the two metals averaged 16.8 ounces of silver to one of gold. 96 PLAIN ECOXOMIC FACTS GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE YEARS 1 493- 1 885, AS CORRECTED BY DR. ADOLF SOETBEER IN THE SECOND EDITION OF HIS MATERIALIEN, 1 886. Weight. Period. Gold. annual average. Silver, annual average. Percentage. Gold. Silver. 1493-1520 Kilograms. 5,800 7,160 8,510 6,840 7,380 8,520 8,300 8,770 9,260 10,765 12,820 19,080 24,610 20,705 17,790 17,778 11,445 14,216 20,289 54,759 199,388 201,750 185,057 195,026 173,904 172,414 149,137 Kilograms. 47,000 90,200 311,600 299,500 418,900 422,900 393,600 366,600 337,000 341,900 355,600 431,200 533,145 652,740 879,060 894,150 54n,770 460,560 596,450 780,415 886,115 904,990 1,101,150 1.339,085 1,969,425 2,450,252 2,861,709 Per cent. 11.0 7.4 2.7 2.2 1.7 2.0 2.1 2.3 2.7 3.1 3.5 4.2 4.4 3.1 2.0 1.9 2.1 3.0 3.3 6.6 18.4 18.2 14.4 12.7 8.1 6.6 5.0 Per cent. RQ 1521-1544 Q2 6 1545-1560 97 3 1561-1580 97 8 1581-16'>0 98 3 1601-1620 98 1621-1640 97 9 1641-1660 97 7 1661-1680 97 3 1681-1700 96 9 1701-1720 96 5 1721-1740 95 8 1741-1760 95 6 1761-1'; 80 96 9 1781-1800 98 1801-1810 1811-1820 98.1 97 9 1821-1830 97 1831-1840 96.7 1841-1850 93 4 1851-1855 81.6 I806-I86O 81 8 1861-1865 85 6 1866-1870 87 3 1871-1875 91.9 1876-1880 93 4 1881-1885 95.0 During- all this time the ratio adopted by different gov- ernments varied from fourteen to fifteen and one-half, and the monetary value of silver averaged fifteen ounces of silver to one of gold, while, as stated, the production of silver was 16.8 ounces to one of gold. It is evident that 97 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the ratio of value of the two metals was influenced by i something besides their production. The only thing that * could have influenced it was the demand for them caused- 1 by their monetary use, which was regulated by law. The next table shows the world's production of gold ! since 1873. Calculation of the value of gold, as the) United States Mint estimates it, shows an annual prod- \ uct of 5,190,298 ounces, while the next following table j shows that the production of silver during the same \ period averaged 87,532,105 ounces per year, or at the | rate of 16.8 ounces silver to one of gold, which is exactly -, what it averaged during the preceding 378 years. Of | course, it would be easy to take the product of one or two j years for comparison, and show results different from ' these. But no fair minded statistician w^ould do such a ! thing, because exceptional circumstances may cause the product of single years to be more or less than the aver- age product; upon exceptional years it is manifestly 1 unfair to base an estimate. PRODUCT OF GOLD IN THE WORLD FOR THE CALENDAR YEARS 1873-189I. Calendar Years. Value. 1873 $96,200,000 1874 90,750,000 1875 97,500,000 1876 103,700,000 '^^77 1 14,000,000 1878 1 19,000,000 1879 109,000,000 1880 106,500,000 1881 103,000,000 1882 102,000,000 1883 95,400,000 1884 101,700,000 1^85 108,400,000 1^86 106,000,000 ^^^7 105,775,000 I""" 110,197,000 1889 123,489,000 98 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 1890 120,475,000 1891 125,300,000 Total. $2,038,386,000 Average per year, 5,190.298 ounces ; value, $107,283,473. PRODUCTION OF SILVER FOR THE WORLD FOR THE CALENDAR YEARS 1873-189I. Fine ounces Commercial Calendar Years. (troy). value. 1873 63,267,000 $82,120,000 1874 55,300,000 70,673,000 1875 62,262,000 77,578,000 1876 67,753,000 78,322,000 1877 62,648,000 75,240,000 1878 73,476,000 84,644,000 1879 74,250,000 83,383,000 1880 74,791,000 85,636,000 1881 78,890,000 89,777,000 1882 86,470,000 98,230,000 1883 89,177,000 - 98,986,000 1884. • 81,597,000 90,817,000 1885 91,652,000 97,564,000 1886 93,276,000 92,772,000 1887 96,124,000 94,031,000 1888 108,827,000 102,283,000 1889 125,420,000 117,268,000 i8qo 134,380,000 141,100,000 1891 143,550,000 141,827,000 Total • 1,663,110,000 $1,802,251,000 Average for 19 years, 87,532,105 ounces; commercial value, $94,855,315- If any man can read these figures and still believe that the low price of silver is caused solely by an increase in production he is certainly strangely constituted. For 200 years the price of silver in the world remained prac- tically steady at from thirteen to fifteen and one-half of 99 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS , silver to one of gold, no matter how much the ratio ofi production of the two metals varied. This steadiness of': price was due wholly to the fact that all over the worldj; silver was coined free, and it had a constant legal value.i The closing of the mints of the principal nations of theji world to free coinage in 1873-1875 destroyed this use for;; 2 it, which had existed ever since historical records began, ir In other words, it reduced the demand, and the invariable jjc law of supply and demand caused its price to decline. We have shown above that there has been no material change |Ji in the preceding four centuries, so why should there now!:i be any change in the legal ratio of monetary value ? j^ I U. S. STATISTICS. 6 \ It is interesting, as having a bearing on the business and monetary question, to study the increase in the min-; eral products of this country, year by year, in connec-i tion with the increase of population. The most practica-i ble way to estimate the value of such statistics is to cal-i culate the production per capita. It is quite evident that! a population of 63,000,000 should produce more than aj population of 50,000,000. But to find out whether there has been any increase corresponding with the increase ofi the population the production per capita must be taken. | The census returns of the United States for 1880 and 1890 1 give figures on which we can base this calculation. There I have been decided increases per capita in railroad mile- \ age, agricultural and mineral products and manufactures, | all of which show that business has increased even more j than the population. For present purposes we can use ' only a few of the leading mineral products of 1880 and j 1890, per capita of population. The increases have been ! as follows : Bituminous coal, .8 ton to 1.6 ton ; anthracite, .5 ton to .75 ton ; iron, 135 to 262 pounds ; copper, 1.2 to 4.5 pounds ; lead, .9 to 6.4 pounds ; zinc, .9 to 2.5 pounds. What has been the increase per capita in the money metals, in which all other things are measured? Silver shows an increase of from .8 to .9 of an ounce per capita, the smallest increase shown of any mineral product, and gold shows a decrease from .y2 to .52 of an ounce. 1 100 ■ ' ' PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS These are statistics which are, as we read them, elo- quent about the financial question. They say as plainly as words can speak that here is a nation with a rapidly and widely expanding trade, trying to adopt as a money i| metal the only mineral whose production is falling off, and is even trying to rob silver of its monetary power, notwithstanding the white metal shows the smallest in- crease per capita of the metal products. We have no data regarding the world's increase of pop- ulation on which to base any estimate of the world's per capita production of gold and silver. But if any one, from any economical standpoint, can find in these statistics any good reason why silver should not have been continued as a money metal, he has a different basis to stand upon than any which is laid down in the books. PRODUCT OF GOLD 1792 Years. April 2, 1792 — July 31, 1834. Dec. 31, 1844. 1845 July 31, 1834— 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851. 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 i860 1861 AND SILVER IN THE UNITED STATES FROM -1844, AND ANNUALLY SINCE. Gold. Silver. 114,000,000 Insignificant 7,500,000 $250,000 1,008,327 50,000 1. 139.357 889,085 10,000,000 40,000,000 50,000,000 55,000,000 60,000,000 65,000,000 60,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 50,000,000 50,000,000 46,000,000 43,000,000 lOI 50,000 50,000 50,000 ' 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 500,000 100,000 150,000 2,000,000 Total. $14,000,000 7,750,000 1,058,327 1,189,357 939,085 10,050,000 40,050,000 50,050,000 55,050,000 60,050,000 65,050,000 60,050,000 55,050,000 55,050,000 55,050,000 50,500,000 50,100,000 46,150,000 45,000,000 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 1862 39,200,000 . 4,500,000 43,700,000 1863 40,000,000 8,500,000 48,500,000 1864 46,100,000 11,000,000 57,100,000 1865 53,225,000 11,250,000 64,475,000 1866 53,500,000 10,000,000 63,500,000 1867 51,725,000 13,500,000 65,225,000 1868 48,000,000 12,000,000 60,000,000 1869 49,500,000 12,000,000 61,500,000 1870 50,000,000 16,000,000 66,000,000 1871 43,500,000 23,000,000 66,500,000 1872 36,000,000 28,750,000 64,750,000 1873 36,000,000 35,750,000 71,750,000 1874 33,500,000 37,300,000 70,800,000 1875. 33,400,000 31,700,000 65,100,000 1876 39,900,000 38,800,000 78,700,000 1877 46,900,000 39,800,000 86,700,000 1878 51,200,000 45,200,000 96,400,000 1879 38,900,000 40,800,000 79,700,000 1880 36,000,000 39,200,000 75,200,000 1 88 1 34,700,000 43,000,000 77,700,000 1882 32,500,000 46,800,000 79,300,000 1883 ......... 30,000,000 46,200,000 76,200,000 1884. 30,800,000 48,800,000 79,600,000 1885 31,800,000 51,600,000 83,400,000 1886 35,000,000 51,000,000 86,000,000 1887 33,000,000 53.350.000 86,350,000 1888 33.175.000 59,195,000 92,370,000 1889 32,800,000 64,646,000 97,446,000 1890 32,845,000 70,465,000 103,310,000 1891 33,175,000 75,416,500 108,591,500 Total. . . . $1,904,881,769 $1,073,172,500 $2,978,054,269 The population of Europe is about 458,000,000, their stock of gold $2,602,000,000 and their stock of uncovered paper and silver $2,540,000,000, while our gold is given as $604,000,000 or our gold equals nearly one-fourth of all Europe while our population is about the one- seventh, which would only enable them to lay or set a price on their goods or property of about the one-half of their present valuation, or as is $5.70 gold to $11.25 ^^^ 102 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS kinds of legal tender as it is at present ; and which would still enable us to set a price on our goods or property, of I nearly double that of theirs, or in the proportion of $5.70 I their per capita gold is to our $9.01 per capita gold, and I instead of injuring this country to your hoped for extent, you see we would still be found solvent, existing and way I up on top of the heap, being like a rubber ball, the more ■ violent and dynamic the attempt to fling or cast it to or in the earth, the more astonishingly beautiful the re- bound; all this is simply because we have resources and the valorous and progressive brains to develop them. So we promise you that we will have the desired metal, prescribed by usurers, for an honest dollar, that will suit you, if you succeed in getting or winning over those 458,- 000,000 to agree to the plan. Possibly, the governments might be coerced by the usurers into agreeing; but what about the people? Whose ideas of the per capita amount, now extant and of the prescriptive valuation of property for centuries, are so intimately blended with their home, and all that is dear to them in life ; we fear that the Stone- Joneses would have a bigger task than brains, or than they could accomplish, for all those of us, having any considerable intercourse with Europeans, soon learn that they are not such consummate fools, as some would-be financiers foolishly suppose, that Americans are. Such gentlemen desire all this change, and reduction in money metal, and consequent reduction and change in all valuations or prices of American commodities, except gold, money and metal, so that they can use that dollar in the markets of the world, at its face value,' and would destroy and demonetize all their silver and paper money, in order to consummate that fact, or in order not to have Davy fooled again, when visiting Paris, by a Sacre Mon Dieu cart-wheel dollar. But it is a fact (although you may have never heard about it) that the gold dollar you so desire can now be given you for greenbacks, or even those 50 cent silver certificates at the U. S. Treasury. So you see that the "promise to pay" silver dollar is rendered absolutely as good as gold by the abnormal action, one-man law, or ukase of a single individual, by the name of Carlisle, a recently converted devotee of 103 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Shermanism, or that religion known as "the devil take the hindmost"; so that now whenever you require gold, to settle your European trade balance against you and your explosive-oleaginous goods, or before visiting Paris again, you will know better how to act. If we come to the bare gold standard, your balance against you would be larger, because of less current price by you received for your goods from them, for then they could obtain it here from others for less than before, because labor and its productions would be reduced in price, in accordance with the reduction in the volume of then^ honest dollar. You would have us lower and regulate the prices of all our internal commerce and real property, merely to ac- commodate your foreign customers, who are forced through sheer necessity to buy from us. Let us see how much of a figure our foreign trade cuts in our total sales, pur- chases, production and consumption of the comforts or necessities of life, and our annual increase of quasi-im- perishable wealth. According to the statistics of the U. S. Treasury Department, for the past twenty years we averaged a total export of what would average now about $10.50 per capita or about $740,000,000 per annum, but our exports are decreasing, that is according to the amount of money we receive for them, so from decreas- ing circulation and increasing population and business, as a nation, and through our own fault, we are constantly losing; we find that for the five years ending 1884 our yearly mcome from exports amounted to $810,000,000, and for the five years ending 1889 it was only an annual average of $714,000,000 which discrepancy could not be accounted for by the surplus production of, or exporta- tion of, India, nor of all the world, but is accounted for by all authorities on the subject (as we ourselves are all well aware) by the fall in prices, arising from demonetiza- tion of silver and contraction or decrease of our circulat- ing medium. At a conservative estimate we annually consume in provisions, clothing, etc., at least $300 per capita or twenty-eight times that of our foreign sales which are about $10.50. This must be all sold and purchased many times over, either by money, or labor in connection with 104 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS its past fruits, and the forces of nature. Our quasi-per- manent improvements, such as constructions of all kinds, in or on the earth, as building, reclaiming, renovating, etc., with our other chattel increase of the fruits of labor such as machines, etc., cattle, etc., amount to well over $15,000,000,000 per annum, about three-fourths of that, of what we consume, or at least $220 more per annum per capita, which has to be bought and sold, either by money or labor, and its past fruits, which is twenty-one times that of our exports. So that our internal or home commerce of our crea- tions or productions is forty-nine times greater than our foreign sales. And as in the past twenty years we have averaged for imports $9 per capita per annum for what we traded foreigners for — which were principally luxu- ries, or what we could get along without, but it must be added to our consumption — which makes the total nearly fifty times more than our foreign sales, that the Davys would have us regulate all our aftairs by, which might leave some folks to conclude, to estimate such advocates, to amount to at least the one-fiftieth part of a true American. To some simple but honest-minded people, it looks as though we would be better ofif, and understand our own afifairs a great deal beter, if we neither bought nor sold an honest dollar's worth abroad. Of course, the import duty on the above $9, reckon- ing it at 50 per cent, ad valorem, which would leave it $3, is fairly robbing the farmer, who would not use $9 worth of tea and coffee in two years, and that is about all the imports he sees, except sugar, occasionally. Now, to ask the farmer to subscribe $3 a year, in order to keep up the price of labor and commodities to a range of prices that he is always hoping to receive, and also willing to pay, in order to compel foreigners to pay a fair living price for our productions, which are absolute necessities, while what we purchase generally from the foreigner is dear at any price, as one bushel of wheat is of more real value than 100 cases of extra dry champagne, so the $3 contribution is simply an outrageous imposition. But for this one-fiftieth part of our trade they would have us upset our whole economic system, established at 105 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS our nation's birth, which brought us until recently un- precedented prosperity; have us reduce the prices re- ceived for our goods to one-third of their present amount or exchangeable value, and reduce our standing among the nations of the earth 200 per cent., and all for what? To please Rothschilds and the Bank of England, which is virtually the Government of England, and why? Be- cause this transitory foreign element fears us, knowing that we possess the intelligence, if rightly directed and the means or resources sufficient at our command to thwart all their schemes and plans for the financial en- slavement of the world, which they are ever untiring in, in the hope that they may come out safe in the inevita- ble social crash that will, sooner than anticipated, dis- figure European geography. And knowing that we are intelligent and strong enough by practical application to disprove the honesty or equity of their political econ- omy or the justice or probit}^ that they uphold and claim of the tribute or interest for money system, just as we disprove by our own superbly existing illustration their heinous claim to the righteousness of inequality, unequal rights and that phantasmagoria of divine right. And in this connection we thought that the great majority of our intelligent Southern brethren had entirely given up that wild, chimerical idea, for we learn on good author- ity that the war is over for nearly thirty years now ; we hear it rumored that the reconstruction day has passed, and we know that this great majority is thoroughly rec- onciled to the new order of things ; but, at the same time, it is hard for some of the intolerant soreheads or natural malcontents to forget, or go back on their ophidian friends, who had to pay in an impartial, foreign, open court a fine of $15,500,000 in honest money for their de- ceptive friendship. This intelligent majority needed no more or further proof of their damnable duplicity than that ''Hazzard Circular." Their little game then and now was and is to control labor and its productions by controlling the issue of money and labor^s wages, remem- ber not to own them and be taxed with their care — see? So there may be a grain of consolation in the fact that 106 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS it is not only the colored laborers they want to control, but also the dirty, mean, white trash as well. In order to define "honest dollar," which is one of the gaudily tinselled catch-phrases of the deep, cunning finan- cial fox that he periodically conjures up, intended for the deciphering disport of the hounds, whenever he is driven to bay, so as to permit his aberrant, abject brain to devise another feculent, frothy, financial falsity; with which he meets the uncontradictory reasonings of just and equitable political economy or monetary measures; "honest money" being his latest, and following such foamy conundrums as intrinsic value, redeemable in gold, good in the world's markets, danger of too much, un- healthy speculation, depreciated currency, ''promise-to- pay" money the best the world ever saw, etc., etc.; it is necessary to remember that a government can only enact economic laws for the government and guidance of those within the limits of its own jurisdiction. That the law or government can only decree the spe- cific materials from which it is to be made, regulate the value of coins and foreign coins, regarding their relative weights or monetary value of any circulating money, such as gold, silver or paper, etc., and regulate the amount, so that all or the greater number may have a full and fair opportunity to derive those benefits from it intended for it by an industrious society, inferentially en- tering a community, all willing to mutually assist each other by that kind of actual labor to which each being IS best adapted, and no drones or scalawags, living by their wits; which monetary regulating power is dele- gated to government by society, but not to abuse by special privileges. That all money issued by such mortal government is simply fiat money, regardless of what intrinsic qualities may remain latent in it, or lost to mankind, while doing service as tokens of the law, or regardless of whatever labor cost expended to produce it. That our vulgar senses prove to us that the Great Creator in His design of all nature never endowed any of the tfiaterials which money ever has been composed of, except slaves, with procreant powers, either through pistil germination or 107 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS gestation; therefore, we know that it cannot possess that attribute known as volition, and is therefore an uncrea- tive, impotential, inert element, that can neither increase nor decrease of itself any of its v'ery limited intrinsic qualities or value, whether acting as money tokens or shirt studs, but is an inert instrument or element in the hands, or at the diction, of the law. But it may be made the instrument, as money tokens, of the power of dishonest officials in or with national authority in the adjudication, adjustment and dispensa- tion of economic laws or regulations; or through the arrant avaricious design and manipulation by those who unjustly possess it in such abnormal quantities that it seems to, and they really subvert its originally ideo- graphic, intentionally beneficent and universally equita- ble design, the chief principle of such design being that it must never of itself, actively unaided by the possessor, under any circumstances, yield any increment to others but to government for its legitimate expenses for con- tinuous issuance, parity and regulation. Such a dishonest or machinating egoistic official, or money mule, may with their power use a money of spe- cific material or kind in the hope of confining the volume of money to their desired limit, by giving one prominence and endeavoring to debase another, in the hope of driv- ing it out from the volume and thereby decreasing that volume, for their unhallowed gain; like they now give a wider and more prominent propagation to gold than any other money factor, using it as a tool to dishonor, there- fore constituting it the apparent debauchee of its female companion of a more honorable and yielding nature, sil- ver; or may use it even to degrade its eminently flexible but inviolable sister, greenback. In the foregoing or any analogous case gold is the un- conscious tool or element of dishonesty, as is silver or paper, or as is the law, which may be disobeyed or per- verted for personal or party gain, advantage or aggran- dizement ; therefore, a money may be dishonored by dis- honest, disobedient or discriminating officials, or by de- graded, derogatory, decimating dealers in money, but only for that length of time that the machinations of traitorous io8 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS vultures may be said to rule the roost ; but society, which delegated to legislative representatives the power to enact laws making all forms of money of equal function or legal tender qualities without discrimination, will soon be heard from in unmistakable terms and in good time with the following peremptory demand. Their demand will be somewhat as that all money shall be issued by government only, direct from govern- ment to the people, through a United States financial or fiiscal circulating monetary department, to be conduct- ed somewhat similar to the Post Ofhce Department; such department to be created and provided for immediately; that all money issued, or to be issued, except national bank notes, which must be withdrawn, shall be inter- changeable and full legal tender for all dues, debts or taxes of whatever nature within the boundaries or juris- diction of the United States (not Europe, as we should pay more attention to our own affairs, and not continue to make the world's clown of ourselves by meddling in the European monetary system, that does not concern us to the one-fiftieth part of that of our own and the one- thousandth part would be nearer the wisest fact, for he who will persist in doing business in the markets of the world had better cross either ocean and put up a stall). That no interest, tax or increment shall be charged for its use by any one, or corporation, to any individual, except by government only, to defray the expenses of issuance, regulation, circulation, records, etc., or for the support of the general government, or for appropriations for public improvements or other progressiveness. That all money above five times the amount of the per capita circulation, reasonably known to be in the possession of any person in the United States (not in Europe) shall be proportionally taxed as so much real or visible prop- erty for the support of government. That all persons shall keep on deposit in the United States depositories, until needed for actual business of a productive or distributive nature, all money over five times the per capita amount, for the purpose of enabling government to properly determine the amount needed for 109 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS a prudent and equitable circulation. That money left on deposit for the purpose of government to loan to those furnishing proper security, such money shall be free of taxtion to such depositor; but if deposited, and not for .loaning purposes, then it shall be subject to taxation for all such money over the exempted amount. Whatever money may be collected as duty on imports, that money, composed of the same material, be collected by customs officers as money exacted in payment for such goods by the government of the country, or parties from which the goods are purchased or produced, in order to enable the government to more readily ex- change that kind of mone}^ for any legal tender mone)^ of the United States, for the purpose only of enabling commercial traders with foreign countries to pay their trade balances in the bullion preferred by such country. , Should that country prefer gold, and that our volume of gold is less than our silver volume, then the gold duty shall be increased accordingly from time to time, and vice versa in the case of silver. If the money exacted by the .foreign government or merchant be gold, then the duty shall be collected or paid in gold ; if it be silver, then it shall be. collected in silver; if it be paper money, for which the United States is pledged for its exchange, then the customs officers may accept that country's paper money to an amount equal to the annual amount of our cost of maintaining our foreign relations with such coun- try. Now for ''honest money," which is all money issued direct to the people by government, is and must be hon- est, even in the most abstract sense, which, w^hile within the jurisdiction of that government it performs, through the law, all the functions which was decreed for it or it was endowed with, no matter whether paper, silver or gold compose its tokens, or that they fluctuate from one cent per pound to $i,ooo per ounce. If the greenback is received, which it is to-day, for the payment of duties on imports, and to-morrow that privi- lege is denied to importers, or it is not received as before, that does not make it dishonest or depreciate it, although designing knaves may decry it, because it has lost none no PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of its debt-liquidating qualities, for it is obligatory on the creditor to receive it in payment of all debts pro- vided for or designated on the back. If the Treasury to-day, as it is now doing, exchanges gold for silver cer- tificates and to-morrow it stops that privilege or accom- modation, such action does not depreciate it or annul any of its monetary powers, or debt-cancelling qualities, or provisions, although advocates of scarce money may embrace such an event or opportunity for exposing their avaricous depravity or economic ignorance by attempt- ing to clamorously vilify it; may we say they sometimes meet with that measure of success by bringing joyful sat- isfaction to misanthropists. No power can depreciate money or detract from its legal tender qualities until altered or revoked by law. True, they may discriminate against it, and thereby criminate themselves in the judgment of all intelligent, impartial, honorable people. A government or an official usurps the prerogatives of the people whenever either discriminates against any form of the people's money, whose coinage and regulation has been plainly provided for in that constitution which binds that society or people to- gether, as has been done with silver in closing the mints to its coinage without first consulting the whole people in the form of an amendment to the Constitution. Silver certificates and Treasury notes are both now (1894) exchanged at the Treasury for gold. The silver certificate calls for, or promises, one dollar's worth of silver or coin and is exchanged for gold. Does that make it honest money? The Treasury note or greenback is full legal tender, except for customs duties, interest on the public debt and payment of United States bonds (what a farcical financial comedy!), and yet it is freely exchanged for gold at the Treasury. For all other purposes the Treasury note or silver certificate or the silver dollar are known equally as a legal tender dollar for all debts and dues, the same as the greenback, but the recent convert to Sher- manism, or the Shermanation Army, decides that he will not exchange it for gold, nor pay it out for services ren- dered by government servants or accidental, temporary employes, the same as a treasury note, certificate or gold III PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS dollar, while for all transactions or debts between the government and individuals, individuals and the govern- ment, and between individuals, with the above excep- tion, the silver dollar has the same debt-paying powers as gold, yet it is stored in the Treasury and not coined and issued as it should, in the delusive hope of having all the people believe that all their rational, common horse sense has fled, and thus reduce the wages of labor and the price of its productions to the European level, at which level bastardly profligates may lofl and roll in splendor and rule in state. What egoistical, equivocal duplicity for a public servant to indulge in, and thus goad the patience and ridiculousl}^ insult the perspicacity of an overindulgent, intelligent people, merely to receive the paying smile of that parasitic weevil of industry, the in- terest fakir! All money not coined or created by government in conformity with the law, and not issued by government direct to the people as their medium of exchange, is money, but illegal and dishonest if it is in any manner passed off on the unsuspecting individual who, without scrutiny, may carelessly accept it in payment of any legal debt whatever, as its not being a legal tender, but which is virtually a forgery on absolute money or a deceitful imitation of it, and can strictly be called nothing else but a counterfeit ; for instance, such a note as a national bank note, or a coin of base or non-money metal, or any other form or notes or tokens misrepresenting the relatively part-measuring representatives, or calculating or cipher- ing shadows of real values or life-conserving, necessitous commodities ; therefore, when such money circulates and stealthily performs any of the functions of absolute money it is dishonest money. Any other form of money is "hon- est money," whenever it can perform legally the func- tions for which it was created by law, to express the will of society, whether designing individuals or noisy bands of polished, greedy, legal plunder gatherers dis- criminate against it or not. 112 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART III. VALUE. INTRINSIC. EXTRINSIC. Intrinsic value confounded. — Banks have done so purposely. — In- trinsic and extrinsic defined and applied. — Diamond and lead-pencil. — • Intrinsic value of wool and cotton. Absolute intrinsic value com- modities of necessity.— Analysis of different foods. — Congressman Baker's tables of statistics. — Way to increase our gold. — Excerpts from Mr. Ernest Seyd's work on mintage, etc. — England a province of France. The word value, v^hen applied to money in a general way, is made use of in a rather indefinite manner or vague sense, the intrinsic value of which is almost uni- versally confounded, or was, with its monetary, commer- cial or fictitious value or standing, and should have but reference to its law-fixed or governing price, or general, mandatory-established quotation, instead of its true, in- trinsic or actual value. The word value in the commer- cial language of the world, is of a supremely flexible nature, yielding gracefully to the whims or fancies of the novice or the adept in the vernacular of business transactions, either of which, generally carry on busi- ness like an automaton, only requiring, as it were, a little oil to make things move happily, or, by way of incentive, a profit, no matter how it comes, but a profit, and rarely stopping to investigate from what source money re- ceives its virtue. This condition of things is cautiously aided and abetted by those to whose interest it is to keep the masses, engaged in industrial pursuits, from learn- ing the musty methods by which they are bilked into parting with real labor productions for the use of what they themselves have in common created without labor for their own convenience. The modus operandi of the abettors is the vociferous denunciation of he who would honestly inquire how it is that he, who by his labor pro- duces most, enjoys the least of nature's gifts, and on detecting, if he should righteously denounce the robbing 113 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS scheme, then woe is his, for Webster's unabridged does not produce all the employed abusive and derisive epi- thets thunderously showered on him by the venal serfs of a mercenary, pandering press. Value has two qualifying terms, which are widely, but unadvisedly or inadvertently, used by some, and cun- ningly and bafflingly used by others, in connection with money; they are intrinsic and extrinsic or monetary. Under intrinsic may be grouped internal, genuine, inher- ent, essential, real, etc., with their respectively qualified properties of element, virtue, quality, attribute, merit or worth, etc. ; such as, for instance, internal or inherent ele- ment, inherent attribute, essential quality, real merit, etc., etc. Under extrinsic may be grouped external or legal tender, which, as the name implies, external quality, is but the illustrative application of the law, and as the law cannot create intrinsic qualities in any material, then those virtues named or expressed, but unfortunately sup- posed by a few to exist, must be the opposite of intrinsic, and are therefore extrinsic, outward or foreign. As to outward or foreign, the material composing the piece or token of itself has no debt-cancelling attribute, element or power, which power exists only in the minds of the in- dividuals to any transaction which arises from the knowl- edge that law stipulates its numerical measure, or figura- tive representation ; that such power, therefore, not being an essential element of the material, it must be imaginary or suppositious, and but satisfies the mind by its legal power, which must still remain outside or foreign to the material element of the token or honest dollar. Intrinsic, real, or actual value is possessed only and in relative quantities and qualities by those substances or ele- ments or forces of nature that tend to preserve and con- serve in realit)^ and not in theory, the human race. And whatever tends in a cumulative way to supply the wants and necessaries, the comforts or conveniences, the luxu- ries or fanciful desires of life, in a transmutative way, or any animate or inanimate object or material element, in accordance with its specific degree of power, in mate- rially lessening the burdens or hardships of man, or labor previously endured in order to comfortably exist, or tend- 114 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS mg in any way to &pecifically add to his normally ordi- nate, progressive comforts, or by lessening the inclem- ence of the elements, or any or all of which, in fact, is an absolute condition to the preservation, conservation and longevity of the human family, according to the relative qualities they possess, may be said to possess or have intrinsic value, and none other, from an earthly, natural or human standpoint. Other things or materials may be said to have intrin- sic value, and undoubtedly have, but must be classed as latent or potential, since there is nothing in nature but has had a fixed purpose or design or material duty to per- form, and since scientists go so far as to assert their belief that all elem.ents can be resolved into a very few, it may be advisable not to attempt to penetrate to deeply into the mysteries of nature, but estimate those elements with which we are at best but slightly acquainted by the palpable and tangible benefits we derive from them, which only we intend to do, as we are not dealing with the subject of technical tellic materiality. By way of a subsidiary illustration it may be well to here contrast the intrinsic value and market price, or commercial estimate, or quotation, of two different ap- pearing materials, both of which have a wide or large sale. They both are the well-known diamond and lead pencil, the essential element in both being the same, car- bon, that great element for generating heat. The one, graphite, contains 99 per cent, of carbon, though some- times erroneously called blacklead. One of its intrinsic properties is that, in this form or construction by nature, it is very infusible, and is made into crucibles for melt- ing or fusing metals ; those sticks in the electric arc lights are chiefly composed of carbon in this form ; another intrinsic quality it possesses is hardness, which, as it does not much exceed one, renders it very valuable as a marking material on bright substances, such as paper, wood, etc., as the lead pencil. While writing the words lead pencil, the thought flashes across the mind, what incalculably actual bene- fits man has derived from its use as a real factor in the spread of enlightenment, that matrix of human progress ! 115 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS And how docile ! Wtih what ease and willingness it will allow itself to be chained by that concatenation of ever- changing, tangling, crooked marks or puzzling hiero- glyphics, to that of its own elementary relative, of such immeasurable intrinsic value, for all human edification and improvements, paper, and when thus for life or eter- nity are happily joined in wedlock by the vulgar hand of man to give expression to the good idea that never dies, and how lovingly and peacefully they fly off together in unity and harmony, bearing those welcome messages of anxious inquiry and soulful greeting, mayhap to the melting soul of mother, and thoughts and ideas growing into certainties that fructify blessings of joy and happi- ness, peace and love, comforts and lasting pleasures to be added to the bare necessities and drudgery of old, even to the dark recesses of the most, lowly Hindoo home, for that thankless ingrate, man. We would keep on in that strain, but, remembering that we are not now trying to deal with sentiment, but intrinsic value, we will move on. The intrinsic properties of graphite are the direct op- posites of those of the diamond, which is composed when pure solely of carbon, but which is entirely consumed by heat; so it does not possess that intrinsic property of resisting fire, like graphite, and therefore not so valu- able. Its hardness, the only intrinsic quality it pos- sesses, is known as ten — it can be used for cutting glass, but this is of very little importance, as there are sev- eral materials that will do as well, such as hardened steel, all kinds of corundum, bort or massive impure dia- monds, etc., so all the intrinsic merit it possesses that are known to man only places it very low down in the scale of commodities ; it may be safely estimated at one-half that of graphite. But such is the unaccountable, inordinate, uncontrollable desire of the witless, wayward women and diaphanous, dudish dandies for bauble, show and sheen that, while graphite may be purchased for a few cents per pound, the weight of one-tenth of a silver dime — about four grains, or one carat — of white, blue, black or rose-colored diamond, will average about $40 per carat. So much for 116 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS our so-called intrinsic standard of value and honest money. The scientific difference between the two is what is termed a different atomic relation, or molecular ar- rangement in the crystallization. The mherent, internal or intrinsic value of cotton may be relatively or comparatively arrived at in contrast with wool, both being fibrous and easily spun into threads of about equal degrees of fineness and coarseness for all practical purposes, but the wool, on account of its poros- ity and warmth, is prized in preference to cotton, as it is more beneficial to man, hence its relative price, while under favorable auspices and conditions both might be produced in similar quantity at similar expenditure, al- though one is an animal and the other a plant produc- tion. Their intrinsic qualities or properties tend only in a cumulative way to man's comforts, conveniences and necessities, so that their real worth or benefits to man may vary from the standpoint, surrounding or condition of the individual ; for instance, a person under the tropical sun could not derive the same benefits from a heavy, woolen overcoat that he could serenely enjoy far north. While all of the normal, separate productions of na- ture, or labor and nature, as far as they go, or relatively, have similar intrinsic value, yet that value may be more beneficial to one individual than another; but the intrin- sic value never varies, although the market price does, but that comes from the imperfections of man and not of nature; it is as indestructible as nature itself. We can change its form, but never absolutely destroy it; but if we change the form of money by putting it in the cruset and melting it or by burning it, it is then visibly bullion or ashes and the money fi.at virtually destroyed, as if you would now melt $i,ooo in silver it would no longer be legal tender for any debts, and as bullion sell for about $480; its intrinsic properties and commercial value re- mained intact, but the money ones had fled to the land of doubt and conjecture. If greenbacks, silver certificates or counterfeit national bank notes were burned, you would have the ashes, and the money would be out at interest as an "honest dollar." While any substance or commodity remains in a normal 117 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS or sound condition its intrinsic value may be compara- tively appraised, and that is all in this connection, for as long as the world moves eastward it shall always remain by man undetermined. Man uses such commodities as cotton, wool*, etc., externally, but from the immemorial usage of them, peremptorily demanded by our climate and the injunctions of civilization, they have become to man as absolutely necessary for the preservation of life as any one of several of the alimental products of nature; hence the price, which seems high, compared to food. All substances or materials that enter into the human system and happily assimilate with it in a transmutative v/ay and all those that are externally applied for the preservation of life or healthy are of absolute necessity and of first intrinsic value from a human or mortal point of view or standpoint, and none other whose determined intrinsic properties by man's imperfect methods can be so classed. Among the alimental class are several minerals, such as calcium, fluorine, chlorine, sodium, car- bon, phosphorus, etc., and but two metals, one mag- nesium, which assimilates or is part of the bones of the system, in the shape of a phosphate, but a very small amount; the other and more important thing being iron, the only metal that is really essential to man's existence. So neither silver nor gold stands any show for apprecia- tion in the sane man's mind. It may be seen from the following table that the intrin- sic qualities or value, or life-giving properties of com- modities, are not a correct criterion to go by in setting an exchangeable price or market value on them, as there are several conditions surrounding each one that must be taken into consideration before determining their rela- tive value. While some may contain more nitrates, car- bonates and phosphates, yet through, or by, the arrange- ment of their particles they may not be as easy of assimi- lation as others, and may be more so to one individual than another, which is popularly described as — well, it don't agree with me, or ah ! beefsteak is my favorite, or the New Englander could not pray right if he went to church on Sunday morning without eating beans with poppers in them. ii8 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT FOODS IN THEIR NATURAL CONDITION. (according to HASWELL.) Apples Barley Beans Beef Buckwheat Cabbage. ....... Chicken Corn, North' n... Corn,South'n. . . Cucumbers Lamb o « n .•^ -g ^ 5 10 1 84 17 69t% 3,^TT 10 24 57^% 3t^ 14t«tt 15 80 5 50 8i«w 76A 1 8 14A 4 5 1 90 19 3i% 4A 73 12 T6 1 14 31 48 3 14 l-A 1 A 97 11 85,^^ ^t"^ 50 1 1 1 1- o 1" 1 ^# 1 Milk of Cow. Mutton . . Oats 5 17 10 P 16 15 8 40 50 4 69^ Parsnips Pork Potatoes ' ' sweet Rice. •. Turnips Veal Wheat....... s ^ 43 63 NITRATES — Are that class which supplies waste of muscle. CARBONATES— Are that class which supplies lungs with fuel, and thus furnishes heat to the system, and supplies fat or adipose substances. PHOSPHATES — Are that class which supplies bones, brains and nerves, and gives vital power, both muscular and mental. From the above it appears that Southern corn produces most muscle and least fat, and contains enough phos- phates to give vital power to brain, and make bones strong. Mutton is the meat which should be eaten with Southern corn. RELATIVE VALUE OF FOODS, COMPARED WITH lOO POUNDS OF GOOD HAY. (according to HASWELL.) Clover, green 400 Corn, green 275 Wheat straw. 374 Rye straw 442 Oat straw 195 Cornstalks 400 Carrots- 69 Barley 54 Oats 57 Corn... 59 Linseed Cake 69 Wheat bran 105 119 Barley and Rye. mixed. . .179 Unseed 59 Potatoes 175 Rye 54 Turnips 504 Wheat 46 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS As may he seen by the foregoing table that we have got along so far in science as to separate and determine the constituent elements, or different acting substances of most materials to suit ourselves and to find a name for each, but when that is done, if we attempt to penetrate further or enter the real mystery, we realize after a time that we aimlessly wander in a dreadfully chaotic, limit- less space, where the imagination becomes so bewildered that we heave a sigh of r*elief on its return to the visi- ble, palpable realities of nature. So it remains without the pale of reason to suppose that any chemist, or num- ber of chemists, much less a presumptive, egoistic, com- paratively ignorant ass, can logically assert that he or they can, with the most reasonably remote degree of ac- curacy, appraise or set the intrinsic value, even only ap- proximately, of a piece of any material, whether it be a piece of gold, garlic, gammon or gall. As the intrinsic value of anything to man can only be guessed at, or comparatively measured by the specific actual benefits derived from them, which tend directly to preserve the individual in normal health and exist- ence, we can only class all such and relatively in accord- ance with their known qualities or properties that ren- der their utility not only desirable, but imperative, for the consummation of the .desired, healthy, progressive propagation of the race. The intrinsic value of gold has not increased, but its measuring or purchasing pov/er has, on account of the vastly unequal or inadequate increase of its volume, when compared to the increase of the volume of business or commodities, all of which the gold is the supposed ap- praiser, calculating reckoner or nominal measure of. The intrinsic values of wheat and cotton have not decreased, but their money purchasing or measuring powers have, on account of the relatively larger production of all com- modities sought by man, only for their intrinsic values, or increase, than that of the proportional increase of the volume of money, which money is compelled to measure the increased volume of productions, the same as when all business was smaller or less, or giving the money more duty to perform, or advancing or increasing its pur- 120 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS chasing power, or adding to its labor or duty, as it were, without giving it a fairly requisite help or assistance to perform that duty, by adding to its numbers or in- creasing its volume. Then, a glance at the following statistical statement, given by Congressman Baker on the floor of the House, will satisfy the most skeptical that there are other influ- ences at work, instead of the ghostly flight of intrinsic quali- ties or value, destroying the current commercial value or ruling price of all American commodities. In 1866 we bad nearly $50 per capita ; now we have nominally $24, of which the banks own about two-thirds and the other third locked in the Treasury. May we now repeat? Repeal the funding act of 1870, and pay that accursed debt in the same kind of money that was paid for the bonds, and also your '*credit strengthening act," for it must have worked to the reverse of its title, for it is evident that our debt- paying power has decreased 100 per cent, since its pas- sage, and repeal that act of 1873, demonetizing silver; open your mints and thereby establish an incentive for the increase of the production of silver, as well as all other legitimate, active industries, which the free coinage of silver will yield, in company of an increase of paper money, as we can only increase our gold by purchasing abroad less than we sell, and by its natural production from our own mines, which costs us over $30 per ounce. Congressman Baker's statistical table, offered from the floor of the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. : WHAT MAKES US POOR. "According to the report of the Secretary of Treasury, the national debt in 1866 was $2,783,000,000 We have paid on that debt : Principal $1,756,000,000 Interest 2,538,000,000 Premiums " 58,000,000 Total $4,262,000,000 We owe yet in 1893 1,027,450,000 121 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Measured in wheat, the whole debt in 1866 called for 1,007,000,000 bushels. We have paid on it: Bushels. Principal 1,986,000,000 Interest 2,974,000,000 Premiums 62,000,000 Total 5,022,000,000 And what we still owe in 1893 calls for. . . 2,054,900,000 or more than twice as much as would have paid the original debt. Measured in cotton, the entire debt in 1866 called for 14,184,000 bales. We have paid on it : Principal . 34,800,000 Interest 58,760,000 Premiums 1,130,000 Total . .. 94,690,000 Amount due in 1893, about 34,000,000 or nearly two and a half times as much cotton as would have paid the whole debt in 1866. England's shrewdness. . "Now, it must be borne in mind that the chief staples with which we discharge our obligations to England are wheat, cotton and silver. Wheat she must have, to feed her millions of toilers; cotton she needs as raw mate- rial for her mills ; silver she uses in her trade with China and the East. It is money in her pocket to get our wheat, cotton and silver cheap — the cheaper the better, and as long ago as 1862 the British financiers had found out that the American people did not know the A, B, C of finance, and for thirty years they have played us for suckers and dictated our financial legislation. The figures given above indicate the result." — Baker, M. C. By the above figures, which may be considered as rea- 122 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS sonably correct, it may be readily seen that the pretended intrinsic value of the usurers has nothing whatever to do with the measuring power of money, nor with the measuring power of any commodities solely sought for their intrinsic or life-yielding or sustaining values, and that those both, values or nominal current measures, vir- tually exist or are determined merely by the law that gives money all its value and gives it and what it meas- ures a higher or lower value of measure or nominal stand- ing to each, respectively, according to the regulation of the volume of absolute money by that law, so to advance prices, we must increase our money. It is well known that there is another way by which we might increase our gold. But in order to do so we would be compelled, in a measure, to imitate the Papal or anti-Papal apes or asses (we suppose that that is what A. P. A. stands for), who borrow their ideas and methods from envious, jealous, spiteful, grudging foreigners, whose bigotry, ignorance and intolerance is invoked in order to keep the ignorant or misguided laboring ele- ment separated, so that piratical parasites or parties, or scurrilously machinating politicians, either of whose past actions unfit them for honorable recognition and are forced to stoop to such degrading and loathsome policy or depths that they once again, by straddling such a ridic- ulous, rakish, reckless, recreant billygoat, may ride into place and power, where they can almost legally reave from the deluded industrious nine-tenths of the fruits of his toil. So in like manner we might borrow the finan- cial policy or system and the gold and thus perpetuate the equality and liberty desecrating and destroying sys- tem of the cowering, cringing, ragpicking, epidemically inoculating, leprous Jews of Europe. In this connection, with the intrinsic value of money, we will offer the following quotations for the stultifica- tion of the Stygian single-standard disciples of, and par- ticularly for the confounding confusion of, that Ameri- can Pope of the Shermanation Army, the eminently noto- rious John himself, and as it is taken from an English authority, and concerning the legal tender quality of money given by law, we think he cannot rave nor cave 123 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS around very much ; but if he does, we will give him the cold bath by the very simple process of telling him that it is from a man whom the Bank of England practically put, in their estimation, at the head of all the financiers of our generation, and that the author is a man whose memory is as execrable to the American mind as your conduct was, on making his acquaintance, when he gave you that valuable assistance for your bill for the demone- tization of silver, in secret, or under an ambiguous title and action, and that he is no less a person than your late lamented chum or crafty crony and dictating counsel, Ernest Seyd. (Do not faint now ! This is not his ghost ; neither a haunt from memory, nor a spirit of the damned, but only a quotation from a book.) Now, my dear sir, compose yourself and look over Mr. Ernest Seyd's book, on pages 618-19-20-21, of "Bull- ion and Foreign Exchange," and you will find all of the following, and some more, too: ''Up to 1816 silver had been the true standard of value in England ; at that time the relation which the British silver coin bore to the gold was as fifteen and one-fourth to one. * * hj j^ -^ag 2,t that time in contemplation to reorganize the system of the British currency. The first step which the government resolved upon was to devise efficient measures to put a stop to the exportation of sil- ver; this object was most effectively achieved by reduc- ing the value of silver coins, as compared with gold, the proportion being fixed at fourteen and one-half to one, while the rest of the world kept it, as they do to the pres- ent day (1868), at fifteen and one-half or sixteen to one. "This was the first movement in favor of the single gold valuation. It was, as we have just shown, entirely practical, being based on no theory, for the very simple reason that no theory on the subject existed at that time. "The mint issues coin at 66 pence per ounce standard, while bar silver sells in the open market at 62^^ to 62^ pence per ounce standard. The artificial excess of value thus given to silver coin in England is upheld simply by the operation of the law of legal tender. Now, how far 124 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS does this law of legal tender extend? We find as the case stands at present that it supplies 6 2-5 per cent, of the nominal value of the British silver coinage, making 93 3-5 parts of silver pass for 100 parts full. Could not this law be made to go further in its value-creating and supplementing action? Might it not supply 25 or 50 or even 75 or 95 per cent, of the nominal value of the coin- age, leaving only 75, 50, 25 or even 5 per cent, of actual metallic value in the pieces of our currency? Have we not, indeed, in our copper coinage proof positive that the operation of the law of legal tender is sufficiently power- ful to supply at least 75 per cent, of the nominal value of the pieces, leaving only 25 per cent, intrinsic metallic value? Nay, why should we not dispense altogether with the silver coinage and substitute a non-metallic paper in- stead, as is actually done in certain countries where they have a forced paper currency?" Mr. Seyd was doubtful whether a paper currency with nothing but the law to sustain it would then, 1868, be a success in England. But, if memory does not fail you, you can remember that it was but four or five short years before his trip to Washington to purchase American per- fidy, and then there was that colossean monster, the Bank of England, towering in his rear. No wonder he doubted its success^in England ! But he never doubted the power of the law regarding the legal tender force or power of money; but it is reasonable to presume that he feared that displeasure and frown of those who could and would shorten his natural days on earth by all sorts of persecu- tion known to the unscrupulous usurer. But (on page 657) he again breaks out from the shadow of the monster into the open light of day and says : "As differences in value declare themselves, the law of legal tender, as we have shown before, is strong enough to cope with them, to a certain extent. No difference has as yet appeared exceeding the one-tenth part of the proved power of this law." Now, considering all the unfavor- able conditions under which Mr. Seyd wrote, would it not be proper to admit that the advocates of paper money should contend for the issuance of paper money, or Treas- ury notes, and that such money should be counted and 125 ^ PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS have the debt-paying power of ten per cent, premium, or over that of the 23.2 grains of gold, which stands for the relative European standard of our gold dollar ? In that way we would not demonetize gold, but still hold it at the European quotation, but $1.00 of paper would cancel $1.10 of gold debts in the United States, but not in Eu- rope — no, indeed, it should not be wondered at if they demanded the demonetization of all metal tokens, when we find such a hero of usurers admitting that paper should be substituted for all metallic tokens, for well he knew that, were it not for absolute paper money in this very century, England to-day would be now a province of France, and all the world the better for it. 126 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART IV. CIRCULATION PER CAPITA. No harmonious regulation. — Economists agree to disagree. — Off on Panics. — Mr. Jevons the economist. — Life is too short. — Wild goose chase. — It will ever be thus. — Where is the money gone? — If we had issued paper. — Why, mamma. — Our debts. — To arrive at a safe monetary system. — Should we have gold as money? — Silver? — Paper? — No old world system in ours. — Stocks of money in the principal countries of the world. — Money of France. — Our reasonable, rela- tive circulating medium. — Our debt in 1880 and in 1892. — Who large circulation would injure. — Vive La. Belle France. — Money loaner's methods. — Gentle shudder at impinging paragraphs. — Anarchist. — Banking methods financial system by comparison with other coun- tries. — France. — Netherlands-. — England. — Accursed credit system. — Money must be regulated by internal commerce. — Facts entitling U. S. to large circulating medium. — Poor money. — England. — Mighty Mulhall. — Our $80,000,000,000 valuation. — Our relative circulation me- dium by Bradstreet's figures — $220 per capita one-seventh of our real wealth. — Glance at European district wealth. — England. — Germany. — France. — Austria-Hungary. — Italy. — Colorado. — Mexico. — Neth- erlands. — Missouri. — So will it ever be. — Sound the national tocsin. — Kid glove advertiser. — Other monetary system. — Honest money axiom. There is no fixity or settled regulation, nor concerted attempt on the part of any school of economy nor govern- ment, to arrive at any explicit understanding as to what should, or should not, constitute a mutably and mutually equitable and commensurate amount for the per capita circulation of all or one nation, or of the individuals composing the nation. It seems that the very idea of such an undertaking chills the latter and congeals the former into an extrinsic mortgagor and the latter to an intrinsic mortgagee. Since the dawn of reason, as it seems, that man in this regard has followed his innate attribute or instinct of avarice, and simply concluded to let every dog wag his own tail. All renowned economists never agreed with each other as to the measures that they would advise society to adopt in order to maintain an equitable, eurythmic amount or volume in circulation, duly in accordance to 127 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the amount or volume of business to be transacted with it. But they all agree on the one point — that is, when money has too much work to do or is scarce, it will rise in purchasing power or measuring price accordingly, leaving us thus to draw our own conclusions, but not suggesting the specific manner in which we should pro- ceed so as to keep its price from rising above a given mark, or the price of commodities from falling below a given mark, as, for instance, $4 shall not exceed in pur- chasing power or price one man's day's labor, or that 23.2 grains gold, or $1, shall not exceed in purchasing power one bushel of wheat within this jurisdiction. But, unfor- tunately, they virtually leave the regulation of the vol- ume, and such a course as is to be pursued, to the sug- gestions of those who have heaps of money to loan or for rent in sufficient quantities so that they can paralyze all business and create widespread distrust and conster- nation, if the}^ wish to den}^ it to, or withdraw it from, circulation, which they will do in order to further their designs, or will do whenever their fresh demands are not acceded to. Neither have they proposed a successful method or course to be pursued in order to prevent those periodical, convulsive, monetary disturbances, which are accom- panied by such disastrous, moral and mental, physical and material ruin, and which render the great majority, previously enjoying all the necessary comforts of life, into a pandemically panivorous people, which desolating disturbances by those suffering people is pitiably phrased a panic. The causes ascribed, which are said to be the direct agencies which result in a panic-scarcity of money and a panic-stricken people, are as widely different and extrinsic as they are illogical, inconsistent and erroneous, particularly so when applied to the societary conditions of this age of enlightenment and enormous commercial transactions, for, whenever the accused cause has been remedied, such remedy has never been proven efficacious, even in assuaging the evils wrought by the next certain panic of money. . Some economists of what is loosely termed enviable reputation seem to become so confused in the logically 128 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS interminable chaotic labyrinths of the incongruent dis- solving conclusions that are the natural concomitants of that purblind, ancient and barbarian-devised system of economy, that they consider themselves so strangely hyp- notized by ancient spooks that they forthwith, by the powers thus granted them, majestically decree a magical cycle of time for his Lordship the Panic to appear and annoy the sons of men in the flesh, the term of years being only limited from ten years upwards, according to the spook residing across the river. It would be a waste of time to give their numerous philosophisms for deter- mining the measure of the cycle. But one distinguished gentleman and writer, Mr. Jevons, an observer of forces, and one who allows him- self at times to indulge in original thought, ascribes the periodicity of panics to the amount of heat given out by the sun, or, more correctly, that amount received by the earth annually, great heat yielding abundant crops, while less heat would yield poor crops, and consequent scarcity of natural productions and consequent distress. Such reasonings are worthy of some consideration, but as the causes have a direct opposite bearing on society^ as they render a famine of food instead of money, the price of food is raised and money lowered; thereby in- dustry becomes stimulated and employment more easily procured; hence such conditions cannot bear any logical comparison with a scarcity of money. But they were at one time in the world's history to be regarded as of more import than they could be now as truly or justly considered. When the centre of wealth, learning and population was confined to a very limited area, as when the Greek or Roman civilization flourished, such causes as drouth or frost had a great deal to do with bringing on famine or food-panic, hunger or destitution to certain localities, or geographical districts, as before the age of steam and electricity the chief legal tender of the general public was commodity for commodity in exchange only, thus manifoldly adding to the distress through chiefly human locomotive distribution. Such abnormal heat, or want of it, in larger districts than those ever thus affected then, 129 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that we have reliable account of, could not now result in similar cumulative hardships, for the many reasons so well known that it is unnecessary to explain. Several economic writers, in chasing their phantom of a panic, think that they have bottled it in the improvi- dence of the laborer, when he receives about one-fourth of his just dues, or what is nowadays called good wages, because he sometimes asks for more and don't work hard enough when he is at it, and don't lay up his wages, as he should. The transparent falsity of such reasonings would be laughable if the subject was not so serious. Panics, as we know them, arise only from an insufficient supply of money in circulation or a forestalled or threat- ened insufficiency. A food famine and a money panic or panic of money are as diametrically opposite as is the forces of their causes. The one is produced by the secret work of nature; the other by the known artifice of man. No matter how little or how much the laborer has worked for what he received, for it is plainly evident that he has worked too much for the support of idlers, 3^et we have had no lack of productions in any respect nor food famine since the foundation of our Republic, but we have always -been able, when we so desire, to count on an in- creasing annual production, and have done more than our share in feeding the balance of the world — some for charity, but most for a miserably reluctant pay. As to laying up his wages, why, the more he spends the more he assists in stimulating all industry, and there- by rendering it the more easy of procuring employment. Again, suppose 10,000,000 laborers out of our 70,000,000 entertained the righteous fear they should, of those im- mense gambling dens of hell, the banks, and that they had concluded to put away $20 per month for six months? Where would our fledgling or flippant financiers find flossy clearing house certificates to pay them? And what a crash! Two hundred dollars per capita would be required to stave off the otherwise dire disaster cer- tain to ensue. No ! No ! He is the wisest economic philosopher who circulates his money as he receives it, with due regard for the best and most for his part — accredited — measures 130 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of wealth or money. For he it is who can rightfully appreciate that at best life is too short for him to en- deavor to enjoy, or, rather, adoringly possess, more than his just share of an imaginary legal agent that contami- nates and blasts the soul. He it is who is just, and who ' can patriotically appreciate society's intention in its crea- tion of a circulating medium. He it is who can justly appreciate moral and intellectual worth and honest wealth above surreptitious subterfuge and ill-gotten gain. Others, again, attribute it to the very thing they loudly hope to see again — that is, to a lively circulation. They all advise that, in order to counteract the evil effects of a panic of money, money be taken from storage and be again circulated; or, in other words, put more money in actual circulation, and for that purpose all join in preaching con- fidence — that is, confidence in bank gambling — but never allude to that confidence which is the only figurative ele- ment of feoff in the law of any legal tender. While they all acknowledge that, no matter how freely it circulates, the purchasing power of money will increase and the purchasing power of all other commodities will decrease, if the volume of money is not increased in due proportion with the increase of natural and artificial pro- ductions, which, of course, must be self-evident, even to the most stupid, or else scarce-money advocates would not acknowledge the corn, even though it fired the flesh. So we see ; and who can help seeing, when those rapidly rotating advocates of our present whirlwind monetary system reluctantly admit the same : that the free or undue circulation of the amount in circulation is as innocent of the charge of pitiless panic pitching as the inadequate supply in circulation is guilty, although the latter's advo- cates shuffle and dodge the panic ball. Others of the swiftly revolving advocates of honest money ascribe it to foreign commerce. But such a claim is contrary to the facts, for if a nation has a surplus of productions and desires to sell it abroad, the money re- ceived will tend to leave all its money the more easy to obtain. If a nation needs to import excessively, it should and can know it previously and be prepared for such an emergency and issue more national legal tender, in order 131 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to the more stimulate all industry, in the hope of produc- ing more exchangeable commodities to offset the abnor- mal importation, which issue also would maintain firm, if not advanced, prices on any exportable commodities, and therefore have a tendency to retain more of the for- eign, interchangeable bullion and prevent its leaving in such quantities as it otherwise would do. As, for in- stance, if we had $20 more per capita in Treasury notes or silver, our wheat would be selling for at least $1.25 per bushel and cotton for sixteen cents a pound. And sup- pose that either form of money was at 10 or 20 per cent, discount, for which, if it was full legal tender, there could be no earthly or financial reason found, still at 20 per cent, discount our wheat would be $1.04 per bushel and our cotton 12 4-5 cents per pound. Others of the cyclic, or cyclonic-celerity advocates of the infamous, infinitive, interest system ascribe it to the workings of an import duty. But this import duty only tends, as intended, to maintain as near as possible a presaged current price on the commodities thus protect- ed, simply placing it as an integrant part of all current prices, which current prices must alone be the proper guide for the nation's financiers in determining the nation's fixed wealth and annual productions, for which to provide a duly proportioned circulating medium. So it is both ferine and fusty to plead ignorance on this score, or that import duty is the unconscious aggressor, who ignominiously invited that scoundrelly Prince Panic. The only writers on the subject who seem by their perspective to touch, in part, the real cause, may be said to be those who ascribe money panics to the machina- tions of plutocracy and a venal press, ever ready to praise public vice and condemn public virtue for any tangible reward. But why should we follow on that wild goose chase and fruitlessly wander through that barren, limit- less space traversed by self-confessed, erroneous imagina- tion, seeking to gather some theorem from theories as transparently exploded or as confused, confuted and con- generic as that deluded imagination itself? It will ever be thus while misguided, though possibly well-intentioned, philanthropists deliriously seek some al- 132 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS chemical process for paying a previously contracted debt of $ioo worth with $io in money, or to pay for $ioo worth, according to prescriptive valuation, or wholesome fruit with a poisonous or cankerous $io I. O. U. or promise- to-pay national bank note. Is it not the present and the past monetary system of the world that allows ubiquitous usurers to exist, and even allows them to regulate its volume, so that its inadequate supply for the volume of business, ever increasing, is the logical cause of usurers' money panics? Is it not this system that has made the combined world's national debt of $28,000,000,000 of gold — eight times more than the whole coined gold of the world, or four times more than all the metallic money tokens of the world, both gold and silver, with at least twice as much more of private debts? Still all debts are increasing. How are they going to be paid? Just wipe them ofif the slate and com- mence anew, and we will all start out even, and see if we cannot be as frothy fools as before, if only for frolic. How does that strike you? Is it not the present system that made possible our national debt, railroad debt and municipal debt amount to-day to the enormous amount of $8,000,000,000, or nearly five times all our total money in circulation, even nickels, copper cents and bank promises to pay, with more than twice that amount of state, county, farm mort- gages and private, individual debts, for where is the saint among us that is not in debt to some other sinner? And all still increasing. On all of which at least there is an annual interest of $2,500,000,000, or $36 per capita; we must pay to the usurer yearly, with a so-called $24 to pay it, to be paid in cash, of which very little finds its way back to our circulation once it gets into the hands of the money renters, even though he is supported in idle- ness and luxury by labor's industry, because the major- ity live in Europe. We are the only first-class nation in the world, with the possible exception of France, that could pay such a debt in a century. For what reason under heaven have we incurred this delirium-yielding debt of $19,000,000,000, or twelve times more than our whole circulating medium? We are sometimes told that we borrowed it for the laud- 133 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS able reason of improving our property, and that it was principally in European gold. Now if that immense sum was needed and borrowed, then why not issue a larger circulating medium? Where is it gone? Certainly not buried in the earth or melted into thin air. Now, this $19,000,000,000 is more than five times that of the coin gold of the world. Up to 1892 we produced $2,000,000,000 of gold and over $1,146,000,000 silver. Our excess of ex- ports over imports only for the past twenty-five years amounts to over $2,000,000,000 besides, or a total of $4,000,- 000,000 that we rightfully owned or borrowed, not counting over $1,000,000,000 of silver. Well, where is it gone to? What drove it out? I guess we have it yet, for the interest fiend has not stolen it. We have it, sure. But the polite, porthole Secretary of the Treasury informs us that there is only to be found in the United States, both buried and buncoed, $604,000,000, or about the one-seventh of what we ought to have ; the other six-sevenths is gone and going to pay interest on what we have left^ — the one- seventh. Is not that the condition that the present bar- barian, monetary system has done for you? Now, suppose that we had issued paper money in suffi- cient volume or quantities to supply the legitimate de- mands of the borrower or business man and decree it full legal tender, no producer or fighter, laborer or sol- dier would have ever murmured at it, but gladly receive it for their productions or services. And suppose, for the sake of controversy, that we admit that paper money would have driven out all the gold from this country, which is the insupportable, wilfully lying assertion of the goldites or money renters. No one, even now, asserts or believes but we would have progressed at least as well as what we have ; that our railroads would be built, fron- tiers dissolved, population increased, enlightenment dif- fused, etc., etc. Now, then, suppose that the $604,000,000 gold would have vanished ; that some fine morning we took it into our investigating brain to cremate all this paper money — with which we found no fault, but merely to satisfy some whim, say, to please some of its vociferously decrying Cousin Jacks? Well! What condition would we find 134 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ourselves in then? Simply over $22,500,000,000 better off, or that much debt paid, or never existing over our heads. But, indeed, we must say that "it was rather costly, this $22,000,000,000 worth of educational experience, for the payment of which it would require one year's total production and increase, while our entire population would find themselves compelled to fast, pray and work with the constancy of old Harry during the full pre- scribed term, and all for the laudable reason of uphold- ing Satan's honest dollar. Where has it gone? Gone into the stomachs and the safes and the pockets of the profligate and lewd drift- wood of so-called European civilization. AVe are told that it is perfectly legitimate and proper to borrow some $19,000,000,000 to use as a circulating medium, but only when a foreigner loans or issues it. But if our own gov- ernment loaned and issued us the one-third of that amount, why, mama! what a cawing pandemonium of pampered parasites we would have ! Some of the most vociferous interjections might be translated thus: Hon- est Dollar! World's Markets! Depreciated Money! Unwholesome Speculation ! etc. According to the last census, partly published, it gives the funded debts of railroads for 1880 as $2,390,000,000; for 1892 as $5,463,000,000, or an increase of 129 per cent. Loans and discounts of banks, except private banks, which are not given, for 1880, $1,372,000,000; for 1892, $3,360,000,000, or an increase of 145 per cent., or $50 per capita, loaned, into active circulation, while the mono- metallists say that $9 in gold is all-sufficient, yet we are supposed to have $24.34 per capita of our own, and still we are compelled to borrow $50 more per capita from the banks, and then be cursed with a banker's panic, that ragamuffin urchin of the usurer. Real estate mortgages for 1880 were $2,500,000,000; the total of eighteen states give, for 1892, $4,547,000,000, the aggregate of them all being estimated at $6,300,000,- 000, or an increase of 152 per cent., or more than $94 per capita. The total net private indebtedness, only that what is on record, of the whole American people being in 1880 but $6,750,000,000, but, notwithstanding all our 135 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS wealth, resources and debt-paying abilities, we find that, in September, 1892, it had increased 192 per cent., or over 15 per cent, per year, and amounted to the hair-raising sum of $19,700,000,000, or $3,000,000,000 more than all the gold and silver money, plate, jewelry, toothpicks and buttonhooks combined in this whole, land and water, world. This prodigious debt amounts to $294.00 per capita, to pay which, we have all told $24,34, as well as to en- deavor to pay our way as we go, but of this $24.34 the banks own almost two-thirds, and the other one-third, like the noctivigant, burglarious rodent, evilly sleeping its days in the Treasury, under the robbing, ogre-like, secure surveillance of the funding act of 1870. Again we say: Repeal the insane, dastardly, cowardly act, devised by Satan's shrewdest imp ! The question that now agitates the weak but thought- ful mind is. What will we do with this $294 per capita debt, which is but part of what we owe? The conclusion they generally arrive at, on being completely fatigued by innumerable, chimerical, haphazard, puzzling guesses is, Well, let us cross it out, call it square, and make a fresh start ! When you ask the single gold standard advocates what excuse they have to offer in palliation for the per- fidy of our last thirty-year misnamed statesmen, they in- differently shrug their shoulders and, with astonishing ignorance, train-hold-up nonchalance and insolent cool- ness, remark : Well, it isn't as bad as we thought. There are the farmers ; their farms are only mortgaged for some- thing like $2,000,000,000, or $30 of a total per capita. Why, a good crop of hay (which is a most brazen lie) would pay their debts. Well, what will they live on while raising the hay? Oh, damn it! Let them eat hay! Isn't that good enough for them? Indeed, it will be too good for them, if they continue to vote for the perpetu- ation of such an infernal, robbing system. We pay from 4 per cent., the lowest on United States public debt bonds, up to 36 per cent., and all the poor and very needy as high as 60 per cent, per annum for the use of money for circulation, and annually have to raise from that circulation at least $35 per capita for in- 136 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS terest on old debts. So that the most obtuse cannot fail to see that there is not the one-tenth enough of money in actual circulation, and that now, in this stage of the game, it is imperatively necessary to keep on borrowing all we can, at any rate of interest, for the year of gen- eral repudiation is fast approaching, if the present mone- tary system is continued; but we must borrow now if we desire to move at all or not to bring all industries to a standstill for a want of sufficient circulating money. If we do not now keep on increasing our debts by bor- rowing we will thereby not only receive another object lesson in monetary science from a money panic or scarcity, but we will precipitate that indescribable, inconceivable, deso- lating war of the "survival of the fittest." When we see such commodities that are absolutely essential to our very existence fall in price or purchas- ing power, but not in intrinsic value, such as food, rai- ment, iron, wood, brick, etc., then we know that there is an insufficient, incompatible amount or supply of that mor- dant but mute appraiser of all other commodities, money, in circulation ; for, if $i measured one bushel of wheat, when we produced 200,000,000 bushels, if that dol- lar was not doubled numerically when we doubled the production of our wheat, that dollar would inevitably be compelled, sooner or later, to measure figuratively, as be- fore, the now two bushels. So there is but the alterna- tive — either double the dollar in number or you double its purchasing power ; or leave wheat at its $1 price con- stant by law, or sell your wheat at fifty cents ; or otherwise shut up and say no more about it! Now think over the. matter and please let us know which are you going to do, for we intend soon either to. raise wheat or raise Cain. In order to arrive at and adopt a safe and scientific monetary system, which will obviate the recurrence of a panic scarcity of money, and inordinate fluctuations in the current prices of all commodities, money included, we must not confine ourselves to that system adopted since the establishment of the Bank of Venice, which for centuries has bestowed nothing on the Old World but discord, bloodshed, robbery, rapine and dissolution 137 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to nations, hunger and serfdom to the miserable millions^ and debauchery and Hbertinism to their maudlin masters. We should not, and must not, sink to that shameful depth of depravity by forcing ourselves to untruthfully confess that, after a century of Republican blessings of light, that we are blindly and ignorantly compelled to follow the teachings and dictation of those we long since conquered and condemned, and whose ideas long since to the world confuted as being incompatible with those held' by us in regard to the social structure of society, as to how it should be constituted in regard to its finan- cial system, as well as its other equally all-important sys- tems. Have we not felt in this generation, and proved to an astonished, doubtful, but admiring world, our power to inaugurate and maintain a paper era of nearly two dec- ades (and would forever, but for the treachery of men that are known and will be cursed while the earth spins in space), which years in our history we may point to with just pride as their giant strides of progressive, mag- nificent achievements pale into an insignificant shadow anything before attempted in the traditional or written history, of the golden globe. Why should we needlessly imitate the methods of Pat- erson, the Pirate when the token of this system was but paper, but in its imprinted mace was concentrated all the intrinsic value that on earth we realize and in the beyond we believe and hope for, faith, patriotism and enlightenment, besides all our worldly possessions? Down with him who asks for more! The sooner that his gold is gathered and securely packed, and he and it is with conventionality, but constrainingly, consigned to a first-class cabin berth aboard some mudscow adrift on the bosom of a cloudburst freshet of the madly moving waters of the muddy Missouri, in the hope of giving him a good start from the mighty momentum when he strikes the salt, the better it will be for all con- cerned. W^e lived without even seeing his coin for more than half a generation and we and our posterity can do the same until the earth shall be no more for ever. W^hen 138 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS involved in the torturing throes of a deplorable, internal, internecine war, they gambled with their gold in the blood of Americans, while the paper, reddened with that blood and succored by the golden, winning wheat of the warm, whispering West, brought to us that greatest of all vic- tories, again, brighter than before, peace. During this time paper money proved that it was all that was needed as money, not only in peace, but when beset by open enemies within and secret ones without. But as a peace money it had proved itself twenty times before 1862 in this our own country, by as many different issues which money was receivable for, revenues to government, and always preferable to, and more eagerly sought, than gold. To go back further. Was it not paper money that pre- vented Napoleon from making an early breakfast or a late supper of England? Or shall we go back still fur- ther? Was it not paper money that checked the rapid decline of the Roman Empire, after the battle of Cannae? Was it not absolute paper money that paid the vast legions of soldiers that won the battles of Mataurus and Zama and that drove the invader from Italy? But why go further or say more, when there are none but a soph- ist or selfish sycophant to attempt contradiction? In order to provide a monetary panic-proof system, it is not necessary to be confined to any one or two mate- rials from which monetary tokens may be made and stamped with the imperative mace of society. Should we, you ask, have gold as an absolute national inter- changeable money? The answer is, Yes, for two reasons : First, because we now carry on our commerce with other nations who recognize it as a measure of value ; second, for the more logical and patriotic reason that it is an American staple production at present, as we produce now nearly one-third of the world's production. While we know that it possesses very little intrinsic value, being about the same as silver, of a little more than nickel and copper, but not near as much as iron. Yet, why not, when we find foreigners willing to exchange for it,^ on account of the commercial value given it by the use it is put to as money, but more especially the fictitious value 139 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS \ I fixed by law, whatever we may fancy that they have for I sale, among which. you may enumerate everything con- i ceivable except justice, equality and liberty. Should we use silver as an absolute, national, inter- changeable money the same as gold? The answer is, Yes, for many reasons. First, since 1793 we have left our mints open to the free coinage of gold and have ever since assiduously applied ourselves to seek out all its se- cret, natural receptacles," and still find that, under the most favorable conditions, we never could amass of gold but a very small fraction of the necessary amount re- quired for a circulating medium for our vast and ever- increasing commerce. Up to 1873 we left our mints open for the free coinage of silver also, and since have pur- chased and have in the Treasury some $150,000,000 worth, and still we find that if the free coinage of silver is imme- diately resumed and its production thereby stimulated, that we cannot yet procure but a fraction of the amount that is necessary for a circulating medium, commensu- rate with the volume of our ever-increasing business, equal- ling an annual production of over $40,000,000,000, which must be exchanged several times during the year, and of itself measures or amounts to five times and more than all the gold and silver money of the whole world. Second, nearly two-thirds of the population of the world with whom we trade have silver as their standard, and eleven-twelfths of them use silver as a national legal tender money at a ratio of fifteen and one-half to one, except Japan, 16.18 to i, and Mexico, sixteen and one- half to one; but there is India, with fifteen to one, and has nine times as much silver as Japan and Mexico to- gether. Third, because it is an American production, and our production of that metal is more than that of gold, as well as being the largest in the world, amounting to 42 per cent, of the whole. Fourth, while we find people willing to trade us their wares or products for silver, it would be suicidal in us to try to depreciate it or dishonor it, merely to satisfy our enemies, without converting them to grace. 140 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS WHY PAPER MONEY? It is not on account of its commodity price, which is now mostly regulated by the demand in the arts for it, and the hope, that will not down, that it will be restored to its former fiat prestige, for if it was discarded as money altogether it would not sell in the open market for more than twenty-five cents per pound; since its former prin- cipal use and demand for money token has been stealthily and dastardly cut off, by closing our mints to its free coinage; that scarce money advocates, who succeeded in their evil design of stopping its mintage, decry it. They do so only in the hope of keeping all legal tender money so scarce that they, with their inordinate proportion of it, can manipulate it so as to regulate its circulating vol- ume, and thereby gather any interest they see fit to col- lect or extort, and consequently regulate the price of all productions and their creator's wages, the laborer. Should we use paper as an absolute national inter- changeable money? The answer is, Yes, for many rea- sons, a few of which we will endeavor to feebly explain. Now, don't drop the book and run away ! First, aside from our own incontrovertible knowledge and imperishable experience, we find twenty of the other twenty-four principal nations of the earth — ^and if we exclude China, we find forty- seven out of every forty-eight of the inhabitants of the globe — using uncovered legal tender paper money, and nothing to back it but the debt, or faith of the people in their own integrity. Second, for the reason that, should we wish to have our ideas and our methods of a financial system when given expression to consonantly chime with the ideas and the methods that made possible the marvelous, progres- sive achievements of still our own age, which surround us with as persistent constancy as the atmosphere we breathe, in preference to those ideas and methods evolved, mayhap, in the sombrous, sinister seclusion of the clois- ter, or earlier in the backgammon, baffling brain of the Greek banc-er (banker), as he sat on his three-legged stool in the market place, hiring or renting out iron or 141 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS silver money at usury or interest, forbidden in your Bible of then and now. Or have them chime with such ideas as those evolved and proven just and equitable in the age of land and water steam locomotion, in preference to those evolved in the age of the human pack-mule, as we find' the Coreans and the Ainus of to-day, the latter moving backwards, hauling or dragging his freight, using liis teeth as the patent car-coupler. Or chime with such ideas and methods evolved in the age of the spectroscope or improved telescope, enabling us to measure the length, breadth and depth of the canals on our sister planets, and vie with them in systems of irrigation. Versus the age of green-hide-shoulder-sack water-packing to their siccative shrubbery. Or chime with the ideas evolved in the age of that student of true chemistry, who, by his scientific and sublime courtship of the ever-fair Nature^ has beguiled her into the be- trayal of her previous hidden secrets by the unfolding of her loving affinities, whereby mountains of arduous toil have been evaded and dissolved. Versus the age of the dreamy, weird alchemist, fitfully endeavoring by chimeri- cal occultism, to subjugate the forces of nature, and magically convert lead into gold, with its natural conse- quent degradation of man, arising from the rhythmic fear and awe of uncanny gods. Or chime with such ideas evolved in the age of that mysteriously potent agent, that harbinger of future cli- matic changes, that light-speeding messenger of human intelligence and greeting; that silent, subtile, slagging, sidereal force, of inconceivable simile, with lightening, supernatant stoicism, speeding the smiling millions, to or from their daily toling task, in the decorated, veneer tap- estried, bi-hourly paper, daylit reading room of the trolley car. That force enabling the erudite guide, the farmer, in his noiselessly moving bastion, to merely turn a valve or press a button, without causing any interruption of his reading of, or speculations of, Darwin's Evolution, while glidingly pulverizing the temporarily recuperating soil, or garnering the golden-hued harvest, lavishly spread abroad by his superior, soulful, socialistic mother, nature. 142 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Versus the ideas evolved in the age of the periodical postman afoot, shod in straw-rope shoes. Or in the age of the slight warning given by the nearing, lowering, cowering, storm-laden cloud. Or the lord-freighted palan- quin, moving with snail-like gait on human wheels. Or the farmer guiding his crooked-stick plow, hitting the high places, or slightly disfiguring or scratching the torose pockmarks on his mother earth's face ; his draught power being furnished by his soul mate in the capacity and form of either sister, daughter, wife or mother ! Or have them chime with ideas evolved in the age that provides a truly scientific education to the millions who we only entice to attend. Or in which we find strewn promiscuously around divers luxuries in the temporary dugout of that frontiersman, humbly courageous, that were unknown, inconceivable and darkly denied to for- mer conquerors and kings. Versus those ideas of an age of a gloomy, sentimental education, of fretted legend- ary fables, rigidly reserved, as the special prerogative of those endowed with extra divine rights. Or have them chime with the ideas evolved in an age that has realized and enjoyed more development and progress of our own republican century than that of all previous centuries of the earth, ten times over combined, offering open opportunities for the enjoyment of perfect happiness, which may be had in commensurate quanti- ties, in accordance only to the amount of pure and noble thought and purpose possessed by those who seek. Versus those ideas of that of an age when the ignorantly indoctrinated ideologies of the idolatry of man and money yielded its logical concomitants of hunger, distress and crime, until was seen nations, languages, religions and races perish from the earth. If we wish a panic-preventing financial system we will not confine ourselves to the system of the Old World, which is as effete and growing obsolete, as its theories of divine right, their systems or system resulting in as different and incongruous a circulation per capita as are their languages and resources. We find England with the one-third of the population and the one-tenth of the 143 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS natural resources of Russia, yet having more than twice as much gold, more money, and nearly three times as much per capita in circulation. So there must be some subtile influences at work other than a just and equitable monetary system. We see France, with the one-seven- teenth of our territory and only 39,000,000 inhabitants, having as much gold as the United States and Canada, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary and Spain, with a combined population of 165,000,000, or more than four times her population and more than forty times her resources or territor}^ We find France with about as much silver as China, with ten times her population ; and with $112,000,000 silver more than the United States, while we produce twenty times more silver than France — and we produce more than four-tenths of the world's production — yet she has nearly twice as much silver per capita in circulation as the United States. She has about two and one-fourth times as much money in circulation, or as a national stock, per capita as England has, which is composed of gold, silver and paper, and all being full legal tender and interchangeable ; hence her red-dog luck in stacking up the chips of gold. The credit system, or the evils of interest, are almost unknown, or rather unfelt, in France, except an interest paid on some $6,000,000,000 of national debt, which is scarcely felt by the people, simply because their whole system of success being, instead of the hand-to-mouth distress prevailing in other European nations, it is due to the large amount per capita always kept in circulation, and at times the prohibition of foreign, competing com- modities with that of her own production. The following statistical statement will be found use- ful to the practical student of monetary science, in its exhibition of the ridiculous discrepancies and divergen- cies of the system that the goldites, both foreign and native, through the bombastic offices of that American Pope of the Shermanation Army, wish to perpetuate on an overindulgent people. How long, O. Lord ! how long will this continue? 144 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS In order to arrive at logical conclusions as to what relative amount would be a just, reasonable and equitable circulating medium or volume of measures and value, it may be advisable to take as a calculating basis some known or tried method of determining values, as well as the amount to be issued or entrusted to individuals, both singly and collectively. Although we hold that, with the proper safeguards, such as good and sufficient security, that wisdom would dictate that no more money could be forced into circulation by a government than that legitimately demanded by internal commerce, hon- estly and equitably transacted, with equal privileges for all, which would establish as permanent and nearly equal a valuation, in real property, as exists in Europe, based on a similar number of annual yields or incomes from such real property. Now, such assertion or proposition as the above defies successful contradiction; and those who believe, or pretend to, and would have us believe, that the cubic foot of air enclosed by rock and mortar, the thousand of brick, the shingles or the slate, the small lot, or the acre of ground, has not as much, and more, intrin- sic value in the United States than the same has in Eu- rope, v/e have no more use for him here. Let him pack his duds and slink by the next lumber-lugger leaving and bid farewell when passing Hell Gate. There certainly cannot be a very strenuous opposition ofifered to our theory by our goldite friends when we adopt the method to base our calculation on that they lovingly adore, namely, the methods and customs of all banks in general, by which we will endeavor to show that $100 per capita would not be sufficient, as a circu- lating medium for the United States, and that $200 per capita would be far more near the proper amount, while it would be perfectly safe to have more. The total amount of the national stock of money or legal tender is but $1,554,000,000, or $23.24 total per cap- ita, or gold $9, silver $8.08, paper $6.15. By the census of 1890 we find the average loan of banks, except pri- vate ones not reported, to be about $52 per capita, or $3,360,000,000. Their number in 1892 increased to 3,701^ with a combined capital of $680,000,000, their surplus 145 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS U 02 ooo oo o o o_o o'o'o' ooo o__o_o__ -Hh'o'o' ooo CO lO 00 oooo ooo o o_o__o^o^ o'o'io'o* oooo 0__0__50 O^ o'lo'co'io'i O CO Oi T-i CO ooo ooo oo^o_ o o'o" ooo ooo ooo ooo o^oo o'o'o" ooo ooo o o oo o o o o o o o^o_^o o__o^ o'o'o'o'o* o o o o o o o^o^o_^o^ o'o'o'o'io" lO »o o o •oo •oo •c^^o^ lo'o" •O O •oo oo oo oo_^ oo o o o ^ Oh ooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooo O 0^0_0^0_^0^0^0 O -pH o o__o_o_o^o^o o^o^o o^o_o^o__o^ o" o" o" o* o* o" o" o" o' o" o' o" o' o" o~ o" o" o" o" o' o' o' o" o' o" oo — oooooooooooooooooooooo O^ 0__ 0__ O ^^ 0_^ O^ C^ O^ O^ O^ iO_ CO O^ O^ O^ O^ CO^ O^ O^ 0__ 0__ 0__ lO o__ j> oo" oT os' co" -^ CO 05 oo" o" o" •^' 00 co" co" TtT t-" ^ co' irT o" to o" '^'^ ccT CO CO CO -^ CO T-1 -* r-i ZO 1-1 CO -^ lO o •^■^'^cooo-^'^'^-^Tticoio-rrioiO'^o tHtHt— Ir— (t— (tHi— It— It— It— It— IT— if-lT— (T— li— (rH ooooooooooooooooo e3 iO IlO to o o o 1-1 . T-( tH tH 1-1 1-1 o : o o o o o iO .»o 1-( .1-1 o : Q o o o o o u • u u u u u D . 1) oj D 1) a> -M O a o 'S bo • c a CO 3 .2 oTs ca - U CO ->* OS tH lO T-H GO 35 CQ -^ tH t-I tH « ■<* tH CO 1-1 T-H T-i Oi -^ O Ci O CO lO tH S^ T-I r-l ^ Q H I gi2 0000 0<;j:=OOOC'000 cT d" c5 o' o T-T o" o" o" o" o" cT o" o" ooooot-oooooooo r. "R- ^-. --L '-L '^- "-^^ ^^ ^- "R ^> ^^ 'R. ^. ccf cT — '" i> ^" co" ^" rjT o" o" o" o" c-" o" •t-liOQOOJO?OT-lT-lO-^CD'^(?iO O O o o o o o o o o OOO w_0_ o"cro"o'o" o oo o o oo o^o_o_ O lO s^ • o o • oo • oo lo'o' o o .oo H D 2 o g B I OCOOOOOOOOOOOOC^OOOO^OOOO^ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO o^ o_ o__ o_ o^ o o o__ o o_ o_ o__ o__ o^ o^ o_ o__ o_ o^ o^ o_^ o_^ o_^ a^ o__ 0~ O" O' O* O' O* O o" O' o' O" O* O* O* o' Oi o* o" o" o' o* o' o' o" o* OOO ^OOOOOOOOOOCiOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOiOOOOOOOOOOO 0^»0 OOO o__o_^ o^ lo" O* o' -i-T \0 O* lo"'^' 00* o o' ic'o' o" to t-' »o o" lo' o' o' o" o «' -rH O O »-l lO UD T-I »0 1-1 Oi O r-< O "^ tH lO CM iO C5 O ?Oi-it- «J Vh 2 1?^ CTJ 000000 c; 00 o o o o^o__o^o__o__o_ o" o" o" o" o' o' 000000 O iO o_o^o o^ o" lo'o'oo'' 10 (M iC O O OS £- 9. rt la ^ p^'3 at 147 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS $237,000,000, making a total of $917,000,000, or nearly two-thirds of all our money in their possession or control, while the other third is securely locked in the Treasury. The total net earnings on this so-called capital of $680,- 000,000 being given only as $66,500,000, or about 10 per cent. only. In 1890 we see that the banks issued at inter- est over five times their combined capital, which in 1890 is given as $625,000,000, which shows that if no scarc- ity of money at all was felt, that if all our legal tender | was in active circulation, which under the present law is impossible, that even then,- by those figures alone, that it is not the one-third of the amount required, be- sides over $14 per capita of an annual increase of debt, and yet leaving the payment of $19,000,000,000 to shift for itself or let Bill Jones pay for it with honest money. In 1880 we find that the private indebtedness $6,750,- 000,000; twelve years later, 1892, it had increased $13,- 000,000,000, or a total of $19,750,000,000, or an average increase of $1,083,000,000 per annum, and none of the old debt paid. So it is evident that there was not one- fifth enough in 1880, even according to incomplete bank figures; and as we increase annually in real wealth at a less than European valuation, $15,000,000,000. So it must be plainly evident that, in a proportional relation, we have not in circulation the one-tenth part of that re- quired, which should exceed in measure, at least, the amount of the annual increase. It is also well known that loan agencies loan out as much or more money than banks, and that private individuals also loan an enormous amount at exorbitant rates, of which we have no reliable statistics. It is to the interest of banks to keep the amount of legal tender in circulation as small as possi- ble, in order that they may control its volume and rate of interest, and they unceasingly preach about the evils of too much currency. Who ever saw too much full legal tender currency in any nation possessing peace and permanency? The evils exist only in their imagination, or is rather the expression of their hopes that it w^on't be so, for it is beyond the power of mortal to prove by any methods of sound reasoning that there could be too much full legal tender money put in circulation, so that 148 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS it could materially, or even morally, injure honest pur- pose or legitimate industry, or that any universally na- tional injury could arise from any large amount, even could it be put up to $500 per capita, all the loud-cawing gold standard parrots to the contrary notwithstanding. The only appreciable injury that could arise would be to the interest extorters, who never produce, but always consume, but which would benefit the great majority. But let us examine briefly the money loaners' methods and customs of issuing or loaning the people's currency. We see by the census that the farm mortgages average about one-third the value of the farms. Well, is not this very fact, known to all, enough to enrage the coolest patriotic American so that he chokes to death the first scarce or honest dollar money man that happens in his hearing to advocate the gold standard theory? The banker values the average $9,000 farm's owner a fit and proper person to issue $3,000 to. Well, then, why not issue to the 4,500,000 farmers $3,000 each, which would amount to over $200 per capita for our total? But it would not do for the United States Government to issue or loan it, simply because the usurer's vocation would vanish — no other earthly reason ! There is no farmer with 320 acres of land but could advantageously use $3,000 cash per annum, and at least double that amount in production of all kinds, at a fair, living price, enabling him to pay American wages, or near such a price as ob- tained in 1866-76. Then what about all the other industries, factories of all kinds, the mineral production alone, ever increasing, as 1880, $369,000,000, to 1890, $668,000,000, and only aver- aging coal at $1.40 per ton of 150,000,000 tons, 8,250,000 tons pig iron at only $15 per ton, or three-fourths cent per pound, all minerals, with similar average, and all being in what is commonly called the crude state? That indus- try alone would support a per capita of $200 for 3,340,000, or the twentieth of our population, or $10 per capita for all, and so on with all the other natural or legitimate in- dustries. From 1880 to 1890 we see the railroads in- creased their debts alone 129 per cent., and no one then found fault with the security. This alone shows an in- 149 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS crease of debt of $4 per capita per annum; deeper still in debt year after year. It would seem to the disinter- ested that the usurers sought to precipitate anarchy, hav- ing grown tired of Republicanism. But, then, what need we care? The producer will have to pay it all, so let us set about raising his wages at once, if not sooner! Well, what an anomaly! Every natural and legitimate pro- duction ever increasing, whenever we so desire, and our debt-paying power decreasing to the enormous amount of $1,083,000,000 of recorded debt yearly. Won- der that our financial legislators in the quagmire of de- spair do not suicide by drowning in it! There is no sane man outside an asylum who could honestly or truthfully say that he believed we have more than one-tenth of the circulation our business demands. It is well knov/n and universally admitted, and never contradicted, that more than 95 per cent, of our business is done with I. O. U. paper, or, in other words, with conjuring, cursed credit, or individual money, which, of course, the banker says, is better than national full tender, this admission proving plainly that we need nineteen times more cash to meet our payments, as the French do, pay as they go, and in this connection for the nonce, Que nous dison ! Vive la belle France ! Every one is aware of the fact that any and all money lenders will lend all the money that they can muster on all property when they are legally secured against loss, at an average never exceeding or demanding more than three times the amount of the loan in the valuation of the property to be hypothecated, and if they owned ten times as much money as they do they would not hesitate to loan it all as long as they received the interest they desired. The Amercan railroads, starting of¥ in 1880 with about $2,500,000,000 of a debt, found no difficulty of more than doubling that debt in ten years. Every one is aware that money is loaned, to a great amount, on security of twice the amount of the loan, and if the banker entertains the faith in the individual that he should enter- tain in the stability of the whole American people and their wealth, he will not hesitate to loan on a security of dollar for dollar. The banker is well aware that the less 150 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS money in circulation, the more doubtful the security. He is never solicitous about what is to be done with the money thus emitted or loaned ; all he cares about is that he gets his interest and his principal back. Then, why is it that, if the usurer. is willing to loan us $20,000,000,- 000, it would be wrong for us to issue $20,000,000,000 of legal tender, while the real wealth would remain the same and its intrinsic value undisturbed, although enhanced in price, and therefore the nominal security greater? Other- wise, where does he expect to get his $20,000,000,000 from, or does he want to perpetuate a tribute from the race while the earth remains inhabitable? Even wise men are heard to assert their belief that such is the inten- tion. Ah ! then, indeed, well may the weak, the gentle and the timid, with the traitorous coward, shudder and con- sider as cruel and confounding, the loud rejoicings of the learned, unbiased, noble, good and true, at the nerve- shattering news of such impinging paragraphs as, packed piacular prisons; insane asylums overflowing; rampant, clearly cool, calculating crime ; spoliating, murder riots ; incendiary, social denunciations ; and the pop of the an- archist's firecracker. Then he (the learned, etc.) ex- claims redemption is near at hand ! He says that then he knows that our sacred rights of private property are robed in cowardice! Our laws, swimming in their chill- ing rottenness, are timid ! Our inapposite statesmen struck dumb, frail in faith, and our wisest men have be- come fearful ! For fear, decked in blazoning arms, is the harbinger of all social revolutions that never turn back- wards ! For he knows that if our social system is in error, then that system pays the penalty, as we now know once it was wrong in upholding human inequality, but it suffered and it sorrowed for a million lives, both innocent and guilty. For he knows that nature is as in- exorable in her demands for retribution for error as she is unerring in her righting of the insubordinate or stray- ing will-powder and all other dynamic forces of her being, as we are sometimes allowed to learn by seeing signs of her displeasure at some rebellious bodies, she sending forth, through her pyramidical agents her warning, de- 151 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tonating, mountain-shivering bombs before uttering her irrevocable ukase, ordering those disobedient rocks to their rightful, calmly harmonious contact with all her ele- ments in due order faultlessly to a common union cen- tre. Thus he expectantly awaits, soon to see those social grievances redressed, political wrongs righted and human rights retrieved. For he sees that, though nature is seem- ingly seen serenely smiling, yet in silent consultation with her supreme king, force, she unmistakably sends, forth her agent, this time eminently fitted for the office by deep-rooted frenzy and impassioned mind, wrought up thus as the legitimate result of the long endured, unholy alliance of law and wrong, and, through the dispensa- tion of their first born, oppression, the ruin wrought to peace of home and heart, being forged by the perversion of the wiser teachings of our social system ; to explode a spark of her displeasure before demanding that inevitable retribution that all evil doings some time all must ex- piate; in the fated agent we behold the form of man and name it — anarchist! Then, convinced is he (the wise man) of social wrongs and questions not, but fer- vently though despairingly hopes that man will see his error, dissolve oppression and repent before 'tis too late! Now, if one individual, whose property is valued at $3,000, can by paying a premium get $i,ooo for his circu- lation for to purchase his necessary supplies with, which in turn has to be bought and paid for with money, or if with labor, the laborer has to be paid and supported and his supplies bought and paid for, and so on ad infinitum, then, why not every other individual similarly situated in active production receive $i,ooo for his circulation, say, to start with on March i, or any other appropriate time, in order to be able to pay cash for his supplies ? We have at least some 10,000,000 such individuals so situated, and nearly 60,000,000 more daily and hourly endeavoring to get sight or hold of one of such dollars. Such an amount as this would give us $10,000,000,000 circulation, or nearly $150 per capita, which would only amount to the seven-twen- tieths of our annual production, not taking into account our real or natural wealth, this being what might be termed as representing one-third of our crop or annual 152 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS total production, and not yet touching on the security of the banker, our real or fixed property. Should we put, according to banking customs, one- third of our real property value, God only knows how much over $30,000,000,000, we would have in circulation, which $30,000,000,000 would be over $447 per capita. Still this sum is more than equalled by the total assets of our railroads, about $11,000,000,000; manufactories, $8,500,000,000, and one year's agricultural crops, $12,- 000,000,000, making a total of over $31,000,000,000, yet not forced to call on all the other of our industries nor glance with a covetous eye on our real property. We should endeavor, by comparisons with other coun- tries, to get at a very generously low, approximate valua- tion or estimation of our total wealth, and in the mean- time take a squint at their circulation, in proportion to their resources and population. Divine-right-blood dis- pensation won't go in calculating according to that sys- tem in vogue in countries whose histories are elaborately embellished with wholesale murders, misery and men- dicity, but that is the history and the system copiously quoted from and idolized by our native-born aliens. France has but 39,000,000 population and less than one- seventeenth of our area, or about the size of Texas In pro- portion to our population and area, if both were equally appraised in determining the valuation of nations, we would be worth nineteen times as much as France. But suppose we come down to ten times, since France was always our friend, is a sister Republic and admirable French patriots, we will not be hard on her. According to the most liberal anglomaniacal estimate of our total wealth, the valuation is only set at $80,000,000,000 — where they get this small estimate, it is hard to surmise, and it may safely be set at anything over $200,000,000,000. Then it is fairly reasonable to suppose that France is only really worth the one-tenth of $80,000,000,000, or $8,000,000,000, while we find her with a national stock of money of $1,581,402,000, all full legal tender and inter- changeable in France — not in the United States — except $50,000,000 limited tender silver, and only lacking $49,- 500,000 of as much as the United States, which equals 153 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ] about the one-fifth of her total valuation. So much for an honest dollar circulating medium in the markets of the world ! Our comparative one-fifth would be $16,000,000,000, or over $238 per capita, or almost ten times our present volume. She has nearly twice as much silver per capita as we have, and her paper is absolute legal tender and interchangeable for gold or silver at the option of the government, as is also the paper of Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and Greece. In this com- parison, as is seen in the preceding paragraph, we have only computed about one-half of our real resources, thus we humbly ask. Are we not as good and consistently patriotic as the French? What has the money-mincing mule got to say against that comparatively relative valua- tion of American and French realties, and the consequent deducible and equitably commensurate circulating me- dium of each? We fear, in his decimating deflection, he will roundly denounce as a degenerate and disgraceful dunce such a deluded defacer of his delectable (but slight- ly dishonest) allowance. Let us take the Netherlands next, the country where the half-king William and Mary went over to war in, when he borrowed from "Paterson the Privateer" the £1,000,000 — which is not paid yet — that first started the Bank of England, and see if its people follow in the foot- steps of Paterson's successors. We find she has 4,500,000 population, or about two-thirds of that of the State of New York, and about one-fourth of the area of New York, or about the size of Maryland, or less than i/28oth of the United States in area, and the one-fifteenth of our popu- lation. She has a national stock of money of $25,000,000 in gold, two and three-fifths times as much silver, or $65,- 000,000, and one and three-fifths times as much paper, or $40,000,000, each and all being full legal tender and inter- changeable, except $3,200,000 subsidiary silver. We find she does an export and import business com- bined — as she is simply a factory for others, otherwise she could not support her population — of over seven times her circulating medium, which latter amounts to $28.88 per capita, or $4.54 more than the United States. This 154 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS large amount of export and import trade is made possi- ble to her only by the large amount of money, chiefly silver and paper, in circulation. We find that she has only the one-fifteenth of our population and less than the i/28oth part of our area or potential resources, which proportions should entitle us to over 295 times as much circulating medium as she has got. But let us reckon only about the one-fourth of that, or seventy-five times hers, which would allow us $9,750,000,000, or nearly $150 per capita, by one European Dutch system of finance. This relative amount of a circulating medium is arrived at by exercising an overindulgent generosity, or, rather, in a superior, spendthrift fashion. According to this monetary system, that $9,750,000,000 would be thus pro- portioned: Gold, $1,875,000,000 (being $65,000,000 less than we have produced since 1834 out of American stone and dirt); silver, $4,875,000,000; paper, $3,000,000,000. Even had we 4,875,000,000, her proportion of silver and pa- per full legal and interconvertible money, in relation to her gold, we would have : Gold, $604,000,000 ; silver, $1,550,000 ; paper, $966,000,000, or nearly $47 per capita. At this Levi Carlheimer system ! Wonder if the money-muddled mule will lay back his ears and kick with both hind feet at once, at this motory mite of monetary munition ! If he should, in order to diagnose his case properly, we will have to eat more fog. We will next look at England, from a distance we hope to always maintain. In seeking for a commen- surate amount for to constitute the given or proper per capita circulation of a nation, it is necessary to bear in mind that the import and export trade of a country is but of the lowest and most secondary importance, as the legal tender of one nation is not the legal tender of any other, except when crowns are soldered into one som- brero or grandfather's plug, and where the imports ex- ceed the exports, or exist without any exports, in either case the nation betrays an inability of self-support; there- fore, in estimating the total wealth of a country, the overpopulation must be considered as a detriment, cost or loss, as, for instance, the billeting of an extra pauper on the householder or husbandman. 155 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Or the property or area of a country of equal area and population as that of any other, compelled to hnport in order to exist, cannot be rated as high as that of a nation of similar extent and numbers that does not have to im- port or whose exports exceed the imports. And in a coun- try whose exports are largest there the measure of values or money should be most plenty, and must be, except through misrepresentation, chicanery and treachery. When exports and imports are about equal, they have little or no influence on the circulating medium of a na- tion, as the commodities themselves act as the exchange- able or recognized bullion does, in offsetting each other. But when unequal, as we find in the commerce of almost all foreign countries, the balance has but small annual influence on the circulating medium, which is in the case of some nations offset by the amount of interest re- 'ceived from other nations, and in the case of others this interest is paid by surplus productions. Just as the accursed credit system has done for the United States, which was cajoled into borrowing that which it could create by law, to say the least, through its own blind mistake and the evil intent of the usurers of that ever-designing isle and Europe, in order that we should be compelled to feed the ever-increasing paupers of overcrowded islands and Europe, which, if we had not been bought and sold into borrowing this gold, we would now possess almost all the coin gold of the world, or gold would be demonetized, and we would still possess about one-half of all the metallic coin of the world, ex- cept it came down to nickel, aluminum and copper tokens of legal tender, or why not come to iron money, that gave such prosperity to little Sparta, the fame of whose sons is so grand and eternal? So it is plainly evident to the student of monetary science that the circulating medium of a nation, to be in unity with all monetary truths and facts, must be entirely based on the internal commerce — that is, production, con- sumption and increase — of a nation, and that the compo- nent parts of that medium of exchange may be, or may not be, made up in part of foreign exchange bullion, which is necessary only in settling balances or in paying 156 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS unrighteous debts; and that this internal commerce re- lates only to the nation's own production, consumption and increase, and not that by them consumed of others' productions, and that a due and strict regard be had to the potential intrinsic wealth of a nation, when compara- tively estimating and regulating the volume of a cir- culating medium for any nation. Again, the property of a nation that requires for pro- tection to support a large army and navy in proportion to her area, and that this protection must be constant, not only for safety, but even for very existence, cannot be rated as high as the property of a nation that is not taxed with such an enormous expense as we find Eng- land, France, etc., burdened with. As, for instance, if it took the constant guardianship of eight soldiers, taken from the ranks of the producers of all wealth, labor, no matter what wages previously prevailed, society lost the absolutely necessary intrinsic value of their production, for the protection of six square miles, as the property in England requires. Such property, then, cannot be rated as high as that in a country where one man is not required for the protection of 140 square miles. In countries with an area totally inadequate in extent or natural resources to support its population it be- hooves such country, by all fair means to endeavor to keep, and induce others to keep, money scarce or dear, in order thereby to lower the price of all natural produc- tions. Those known as alimentary products, which are absolutely necessary for the consumption of the inhabi- tants, in order to maintain life. Those of a fabricating nature, in an unfinished condition for the final purchaser or consumer, in order that her surplus industrial classes may thereby find profitable employment in their com- peting manufacture with other countries possessing less surplus population, and more natural resources or sur- plus, from which latter countries the former is forced, to purchase or dissolve. Therefore, it would be an advantageous policy, and strictly consistent, for a country to adopt the reverse financial measures in providing for a circulating medium, whose resources and productions are, or may be brought 157 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS forth, far in excess of their own consumption. Such a policy must be deemed just and proper. Just so long as nations, like individuals, compete with each other in the unending struggle for supremacy, as to their endeavor to possess the most possible of nature's gifts, of necessi- ties and comforts, for the happiness and contentment of their own citizens, and not that of any other nation, who are rarely ever thankful for your intermeddling gener- osity. Thus we find that the United States and England, both to be patriotically consistent, should advance and support diametrically opposite reasonings, conclusions and methods in determining their respective justifiable amounts to be emitted or issued as a measure of values or circulating medium, on account of their distinctly differ- ent conditions. The statesman or student of monetary truths, in en- deavoring to discriminate between the systems of nations in regard to the amount in circulation per capita, we are of the opinion, will find a good criterion to aid him in determining the more advantageous or pandemically beneficial policy by observing and comparing what is uni- versally and appropriately known as the poor people's money; what proportion such money or limited tender, which is generally subsidiary or auxiliary silver, bears to the total stock of money of any nation. As this money of the poor is their general full legal tender, if not so by law, by which the prevalent poverty of the masses may be safely gauged or estimated, and found to be propor- tionally greater where the volume of poor money is greater, or as it increases in a relative degree. For instance, we find that in those countries where it is known that their people are most prosperous that this lim- ited tender bears but a small proportion to that of other countries where the prosperity of their people is known not to be tantamount. In the United States it is but as one to twenty-one; in France as but one to thirty-four; in the Netherlands as but one to forty; in Belgium as one to twenty-six ; in Australia as one to fourteen ; in Cuba only as one to seventy-seven. Now, it is well known that in all these countries that the Caucasian race or population are well to do* PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that illiteracy is proportionally small; that the masses generally are employed and contented, comparatively; that the per cent, of emigration is but slight; that indi- gence is but rare, and abject poverty is unknown; that the percentage of property owners bears a favorable rela- tion to their area ; that labor is rewarded by better wages generally than that prevailing in other countries with more poor-money medium for similar services; that the number of creatures, through selfish misgovernment, who have to perpetually battle and struggle against an arti- ficially designed, disgraceful destiny for a mere existence, happily, is relatively small, when compared with the more unfortunate kind, whose latters' sufferings are irrefutably traceable to the accursed system of something for noth- ing, or contaminating triune of interest, rent and tithe, the principal saffron-tinted tenet of their doctrine being scarce money. The bombastic Britisher would be offended if told that France was the wealthier of the two ; but if the wealth of a nation bears, as it should, a just proportion to the amount of full legal tender in circulation, then if England would be worth $15,750,000,000, France would be worth $39,000,000,000. And it is impossible, by any method of financial reasoning to conclude otherwise, for we find the gold, silver and paper money of France interchange- able and at par with the gold and paper of England and the national securities of each about equally valuable or desirable. Such great divergence cannot be derived from the difference in area alone, as that stands in the propor- tion of England, etc., twelve ; France, twenty, while their circulations stand as fifteen and three-fourths to thirty- nine, and the population as, England, thirty-seven and three-fourths ; France, thirty-eight and one-fourth, census 1891. While it is evident that France does not possess more than one-tenth of our natural resources and wealth such calculation would allow us, then, at least twenty-five times the circulating medium of England, or over $400 per capita and a valuation of $400,000,000,000 of United States national wealth. ^ In the opposite category of nations we find Turkey s poverty money in proportion of four and one-half to 159 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS five, or gold for the harem, $1.52 per capita; silver for the serfs, $1.36; total circulation, $2.88 per capita in that enlightened country of 33,000,000 saints. In Germany about as one to nine of total stock, the poor money being $2.16 per capita, v^hile in England it is $2.63. In Spain as one to less than eight, total stock. In Portugal as one to nine and one-half, do. In Italy, w^ith over one-half paper interchangeable for gold and silver and full legal tender, it is as one to nine, do. Scandinavian Union, •with about one-half paper, uncovered, as one to less than seven, do. In Egypt, under British surveillance, as one and one-half to ten, or as one to six and two-thirds. In England, under Patersonian-bank-tariff protection, it is as one to seven, or the one-sixth of the legal tender. For us to enter into a comparison of the several bene- fits derived by the one -and the numerous hardships en- dured by the other inhabitants of the two sets of coun- tries, the first using or having a large circulation of full legal tender and comparatively small drudge money, and the other, or the second, having a small full tender and full amount of pauper chips, we deem it would be savoring of pedantry or adjudged as wholly superfluous by all, except those whose obdurate obtuseness. ranks with their obstinate perversity, and as we do not intend to waste the effort trying to enlighten such people,, sim- ply because we "don't have to" ; we will leave intelli- gent and rational people to draw or infer their own con- clusions. In order to arrive at a fair comparative estinlate of English and American national wealth ahd per conse- quent volume of circulating medium, whether we be madly prompted to imitate her selfish ideas and methods, or whether we devise and adopt a more just and equita- ble system, reasoned out in harmony with all other pro- gressive ideas, bearing equality and carrying justice to all, that, when realized, stand out in bold relief as monu- mental milemarks erected to the memory of oppression on the broad and adversative avenue leading to the universal brotherhood of man ; it will be necessary to keep in view, or bear in mind, all those conditions and costly circumstances that surround and tend to harass the well-being of England 160 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that we have briefly and partly sketched. Also, since we had ample proof of her undying hostility to us and our institutions for having whipped her fair twice, and then, when she found us in an internal turmoil, that she had egged on, she dastardly did all she could to injure us, in proof of which we have the Geneva Award, and since then the "Ernest Seyd" affair ; we do not intend in our cal- culations to be as generous with her as we were with France, our friend in infancy; but we intend to give her that dealing that she always denied to us, common jus- tice. We find England's population 4,250,000 more than one- half of ours ; her area about one-thirtieth of ours, our live- stock alone being valued at more than our total circulat- ing medium ; if her per capita was based on her live stock, it would only allow her $3.04 per capita, or sixteen cents more than Turkey, with 33,000,000 population, or sixty cents, less than India, with 255,000,000 population. But we find her having, per capita, more than six times the value or price of her live stock. Why, then, do we not have six times the value or price of our live stock in circulation? This would give us about $148 per capita. According to her own "Mulhall, of London," we find that the manufactures of 1888 (the last statistics) of Eng- land, France and Russia, with a combined population of 190,000,000, of textiles, hardware, clothing, beer and spirits and leather, amount to only $8,340,000,000 while ours amounted in 1892, to $8,564,000,000, or $224,000,000 more than the three combined. These industries would entitle us to the circulating medium of the three countries. Our coal area, 194,000 square miles, is twenty-two times greater than that of England, 9,000 square miles. Leaving out China and Japan, we have three times the coal area of the balance of the world, which resource would entitle us to three times the circulating medium of that balance of the world, or far more than $400 per capita. The above statistics and sensational figures and areas are not given by a maudlin American Mudsill, but by the mighty Lon- don Mulhall. Our wheat production averages the one-third of that of the world and could be increased to one-half. Our cot- 161 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ton production of 1892 amounted to the nine-elevenths of the total consumption of cotton by the whole world, and we produced more than two-thirds of the production of the world. This industry and the wheat would entitle us to one-half, at least, of the total circulation of the world. This cotton estimate is by Ellison & Co. Our dairy products are six times greater than the British j Isles, and it equals one-half of all Europe and Canada I combined. This estimate is by Mulhall. So this industry j would entitle us to over $100 per capita. Our farm ani- mals alone, in 1891, by our Department of Agriculture, I were estimated at over $35 per capita. But if we should | do like England, in this estimate, and place six times 1 that in circulation per capita, it would give us, of course, 1 that relative amount of $210 each. Our tobacco produc- \ tion, according to the European production given by "Neuman-Spallart," exceed by one-fifth the total produc- I tion of all Europe. This industry would entitle us to a ! comparative medium of exchange of $130 per capita. Our wool industry amounted in 1893, to 330,000,000 pounds, or two and one-half times as much as Britain and Ireland, and more than one-half of that of the whole continent of Europe combined, entitling us to a circula- tion of over $55 per capita, based on a general European system, which it behooves us to condemn. This estimate of wool for England and Europe was compiled in 1891 by the London Board of Trade, so no one can be impris- oned for its inaccuracy. Our forest area of 450,000,000 acres is six times greater than the total area of Britain and Ireland. At the low figure of $20 per acre it amounts to $9,000,000,000, which would, at a liberal estimate, equal the total wealth of Britain and Ireland. This resource alone represents a valuation of $150 per capita. Our iron and steel production represents more than the one-third of the whole world combined; and more than England, France, Russia and Sweden combined, with a combined population of 196,000,000. This indus- try alone, in comparison with these countries, would enti- tle us to $90 per capita. These iron and steel statistics are to be found in "Swanks' History of Iron in All Ages." 162 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Phila., 1891 ; 321, Our production of gold in 1890, or any single year for over forty years, was 1,000 times greater than that of England in 1890 (her latest statistics avail- able), and our silver product being 250 times greater than hers. Striking a mean between the two products we find we would be entitled for this industry to 625 times the circulating medium of the British Islands, amounting to the daisy little toothpick of $5,850 per cap- ita. Those wonder-producing figures are by Mulhall, whose partiality and unreliability we will endeavor to prove in his bank statistics in that part of this book de- voted to banks or interest. According to Mulhall, we have produced in gold, up to 1880, the one-fifth of the world's production for their five last centuries and our own production included, or 2,042 tons gold; total world production, 10,355 tons gold; bal- ance of the world, outside the United States, 8,315 tons gold for 500 years. By those figures we see that it took all the world, outside the United States, 127 years to pro- duce the 2,042 tons, the same amount that we produced in 104 years. Or that we produced about one and one- fourth times as much as the balance of the world in our one Republican century from our ugly rock and mud ; and of the $1,308,000,000 since produced by the world, we produced about $500,000,000 of it, or about the five- eighths of the total production of the balance of the world. This industry or production would entitle us to five-eighths of the total circulating medium of the bal- ance of the globe, or about $150 per capita. During this century of an enormous gold production we only produced about five and one-half times the weight of the gold, in silver, in the same time, up to 1880, or the one-eighteenth of the world. This statistician feels so much ashamed of pompous, bombast, spongy England's production of gold that he flings it in among the production of all the countries of the earth (except ten), all of which small producers yield only one-third of that of the United States in its one century for their five centuries ; while their silver nearly equals that of the United States, being 11,200 tons silver, while ours has been 11,600 tons, by which latter figures he endeavors to 163 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS make the ratio of silver as more than eighteen to one of gold, while the world-renowned Prof. Adolph Soetbeer places it at 16.8 to i for the 378 years ending 1871 ; and the United States Mint reports, from 1873 up to 1893, will figure it out at 16.8 to i also, and we may add that during the said 378 years the coinage or monetary ratio aver- aged below fifteen to one. In 1890 we produced, leaving out or excepting Asia, Africa and Australia, as much gold as the balance of the world combined, and one-half as much silver. This in- dustry, therefore, would entitle us to over $8,000,000,000 of a circulating medium, or $120 per capita, based only on the amount of those countries not excepted above. To recapitulate, we find that the United States, when compared with the British Islands, has: First, nearly twice the population, and none surplus. Second, more than twice the manufactures. Third, more than thirty times the total area. Fourth, coal resources more than twenty-two times as much. Fifth, ten times the wheat. Sixth, seventy-eight times as much cotton (as the popu- lation of the Islands is the one thirty-ninth of the whole of the earth's population, and as we produce the two- thirds of the cotton and the balance of the world the other one-third, or half as much as us, therefore we give the Islands credit for the one seventy-eighth). Seventh, over twenty times as much copper; we produce as much copper as the whole world combined, entitling us for this industry as much circulating measures of value as that of the whole world. Eighth, six times as much dairy prod- ucts. Ninth, ten times as much tobacco, giving her credit for her population, as compared with Europe, while we know she produces none, as well as several other of our productions. Tenth, two and one-half times as much wool. Eleventh, eight times as much live stock. Twelfth, two times as much iron and steel. Thirteenth, more than twenty times the amount of forest, as we do not wish to get too high. Fourteenth, fifty-five times the produc- tion of gold and silver; this is allowing her, and in ac- cordance to her part population of the earth. Fifteenth, eight times less expense, or better off, from maintenance of army and navy. 164 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS In this computation we find the United States entitled to the proportion of, as 275 ^^ is to 15; or the United States entitled to 18 7/30 times as much circulating me- dium as England has now; that is, $700,000,000, total British Islands' stock of money, as given in Mulhall's statistics, which would give us $12,763,000,000 national stock of money, or over $190 per capita, while this cal- culation strictly adheres to the British valuation of our resources; and it is well known that none of our flour passes through her sieve, except it is exceedingly fine and small. To strike a mean between the comparative circulation of the United States and that of the circulation of Eng- land, $190; of the Netherlands, $150, and that of France, taking ten times her national stock of $1,581,000,000 and dividing it by 67,000,000, our population, we get $236 per capita. By this mean, by adding the three and then taking the one-third, we get $192 per capita for a Euro- pean, commensurate circulation for us, which is gradually growing to the proper dimensions, that the United States should possess to get even with the baby-balloon-bauble- peddling financiers of Europe. For all scarce money advocates and monometallists all the foregoing valuations and statistics must have an over- whelming fascination, as most of them are given by the Merciful Mulhall, of that big commission agency, Lon- don, and a few by their other henchmen. Secretaries of the Treasury and mint directors ; lest fault would yet be found, we called in the London Board of Trade. We have seen that everything that goes to make a country rich and prosperous we have from twice to one hundred times as much of as other nations have, while our national debt is only about $14 per capita. But we find France has a debt of $116.35 ; British Islands, $87.79, while some of her boasted dependencies, as she calls them, have still higher, West Australia having $150.23; South Australia, $321, and Queensland, $33346 per cap- ita each, while all European countries range in debt from $30 up to $100 per capita. There is no country in Europe that can bear a compari- son or relative valuation with the United States on the 165 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS $86,000,000,000 basis, but has an average over the one- sixth valuation of their total wealth resources, less their, debts, as a circulating medium. Now, all fair-minded men know this to be an indisputable fact and truth. Then, may we ask, what has the United States done to that American Pope of the Shermanation Army and his cohorts, except to make millionaires of them instead of expatriating them, that the said United States would not have the one-sixth of its $80,000,000,000 as its circu- lating medium? But let us glance at the $80,000,000,000 valuation. The annual consumption and accumulated wealth or increase amount to $35,000,000,000, and, estimating the total fixed or real wealth at five times the annual production, this- would bring it up to $175,000,000,000, while in Europe an acre of land is estimated at from ten to twenty times or years of its annual yield or production. Now, ten years' rent for bare land alone — while rent averages $7 per acre — would be $70 per acre, or $161,000,000,000 for bare land. We find also by the census of 1890 that the total as- sessed property reported was assessed at $24,250,000,000 in laying the assessment for taxes ; the valuation of prop- erty in dift'erent states ranged from 10 per cent, to 50, and some 100. So, estimating it at six times the assessed valuation — which would be moderate to get at the mar- ket value^we get $145,000,000,000. • Out of 1,150 fire insurance companies, we find in the reports of 523 of them that they have an insurance on houses, etc., or property injured by fire — not land— and .that their risks amount to $16,500,000,000. Allowing only one-half of that amount for the other 650 companies, we get $24,750,000,000 on houses or buildings, etc., alone, which should not be considered over the one-tenth of the value of our total realty, which would, therefore, appraise it at $247,000,000,000. Why, even the railroads alone are claiming assets of almost $11,000,000,000. The railroad property could not certainly be worth over the one-fortieth of our total wealth, leaving it at $440,000,000,000; but that is ''limited ■express" calculation. But one would suppose that we t66 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS should be allowed to put sufficient money in circulation to equal the assets or valuation of our distributing agent on land. This would only give us at the one-fortieth of our wealth but $164 per capita. Certainly the Noble Schemer himself will not kick at this, for he knows that if we were to get the one-third, according to banking customs, methods and systems, there would not be gold, silver, paper and brass money enough among all the governments and banks of the world when, even assisted by the American Pope as Noble Schemer, to supply us. And he knows that on this fraction of our wealth the railroads borrowed from the jabbering Jews of Europe $5,250,000,000 up to 1891, which ought to leave their market value, according to banking, $15,750,000,000. Then, how does that chime with the $80,000,000,000 European and American alien valuation? Or do the)^ pretend that railroad property is the one-fifth of our wealth? Or for every mile of track, sidings, switches and all, we would be allowed the equiva- lent of 5,889 acres of land, leaving out all other property? We can scarcely believe that any money loaner would be so confoundedly avaricious or so confusedly unpatri- otic as to deny us the one-twelfth of the money for our circulating medium sufficient to carry on our annual transactions; since we do not as a nation intend to sell out, but merely wish to have somewhat near the one- twelfth of the amount in circulation of what we exchange annually to carry on our simple barter. To this end let us invoke the aid of Bradstreet's agency's figures. We will first take the statistics of December 22, 1892, before the workings of the panic became widely known to the general public. Of the sixty-six cities reporting their bank clearances, fifty-seven of them have over 30,- 000 population, and nine of them below that number, with a combined population of 12,000,000, or about two- elevenths of the whole. This 12,000,000 did a business in the week ending December 21, 1892 of $1,509,785,000; allowing five and one-half times this amount for the busi- ness of the whole people for one week, we get about $8,750,000,000, or almost $130 per capita. Or for four weeks, or the one-thirteenth of our annual business, to be 167 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS more correct, we get the sigh-drawing figures of $33,215,- 000,000, or $495 per capita ; or an annual business of the reason-loosening figures of $431,798,500,000, and, count- ing 67,500,000 population, we do an annual exchange among each other of $6,397 P^^ capita. And b)^ having over $200 per capita of a circulating medium, it would then be but the one-thirty first part of the annual ex- change transactions, which transactions it would be im- possible to carry on with our present volume of real money, were it not that we are compelled to do over the nineteen-twentieths of it with worthless, though expen- sive, bank paper and individual notes. But the scarce money puppets say that such paper is better than gold, or even absolute National Treasury notes. For the week ending November 23, 1892, in seventy- five cities, with a combined population of 13,180,000, the week's clearances that are reported are $1,104,700,000; allowing for the whole of the population, five times this, would give over $5,500,000,000 for the week, or for four weeks over $22,000,000,000, or the one-thirteenth of our annual transfers of all kinds reported, about $330 per capita, without interfering very bad or hard with our real property. For the week ending September 3, 1892, the clearances from seventy-two cities and towns, with a population of near 13,000,000 were over $964,500,000, and only five times this for the week would be over $4,823,000,000. This latter is one of the smallest week's returns to be found, and yet would amount to %y2 per capita for all, and only represents one fifty-second of our annual busi- ness transactions, and it would necessitate all the money in the United States to pass through the people's hand three times in one week, which would be impossible was not over 95 per cent, of our business exchanged by coun- terfeit paper and credit, instead of full tender United States money. Oh ! where is the man who wants to pay $20 legal debt with $1 legal tender and $9 counterfeit and leave the other $10 to be receipted for bv the Angel Gabriel ? _ For the week ending September 24. 1892, the sixty- nine cities and towns reporting, and having 12,238,000 168 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS population, or the two-elevenths of the whole, we find their week's business of purchase and sale, as also pay- ment on interest, amount to $1,192,255,000, making for the whole people's one week's business $6,557,403,500, or near $100 per capita; but for the four weeks' business, or the one-thirteenth of the annual barter, making $400 per capita the sum necessary for the people to do busi- ness on a financial system independent of the tribute system, or interest for counterfeit money. No doubt some bedizened, bell-wether, skin-deep phi- losopher and monetary expert will suddenly discover that those clearances represent more business than a similar number of the balance of the population transact in the same time. But we would afifably remind such gentle- men that those cities or villages are but mammoth and ramified peddling shops, with numerous departments for distributing to their inhabitants for consumption the products raised elsewhere, and that all the sales that they make for their employers must be duplicated five, if not ten, times over the same day, in order that the balance may not die of hunger either, as also to keep up a full stock in your store, and for every dozen eggs bought by you another dozen is immediately, if not sooner, bought of the farmer to replace yours, and so on. It is true that seaport cities take the credit of the business of exports and imports, which may be rightfully done, but at most should not appear as excess in the clearances more than twice. If a producer sends $1,000,000 worth to a salesman or a house hired by a commission for the purpose, which he sells to a foreign agent, receives a check on some bank, that is once; he may pay the con- signor with that check, or with it through another bank, less his wages, that is twice. If you buy from a foreigner some imports and pay him, that is once ; when you sell it or consign it to some consumer, that is twice, when you receive your check in payment. But either of these trans- actions can be consummated, as many are, without ap- pearing in the bank clearances. Still, all the excess that this would amount to, outside your own consumption and fabricating, could only, at best, be the total amount of exports and imports, which do not amount to $2,000,- 169 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 000,000 annually ; then by your clearing them twice would appear as $4,000,000,000, which even then would not be the one-thousandth part of our total annual transfers or exchanging transactions ; but all those, even yet, must be exchanged throughout the country before and after- wards, therefore or thereby reducing still your one-thou- sandth proportion of excess over inland population. For the week ending October 5, 1892, from seventy- three cities and towns reporting, and having a population of 12,780,000, we find their week's commission sales, as they produce but little, except preparing unfinished ma- terial for consumption and merely, as errand boys and porters, distribute by hand and truck the productions of others, mostly for their own consumption, amount to $1,286,930,000, or, for the whole, five and one-fourth times that, $6;756,382,5oo, or over $100 per capita, required to do one week's trading, and showing that $400 per capita would be required in order to allow us to possess as a circulating medium the one-thirteenth of the necessary barter or exchange of our production and consumption, and yet this would be less than the banks would loan indi- viduals by their system if they had it, by which system it could be done, and yet not touch on our real property. But, to give the devil his due, the banks do the best they can, if not better, by loaning us not only all the money they have, but, still better, they loan us at the rate of $1,000,000 on a capital of $100,000, or $900,000 debt- credit-debt-bank-check-backed paper at from 6 to 60 per cent, per annum ; and, indeed, he must be hard to satisfy that would complain at such self-discommoding accom- modations by the bank. But some people are mighty hard to please. We will now take a week's report from the late spring, when some might claim we did not do as much business as in the fall, when the crops were moving; but this has little influence on our internal commerce, as we consume at all times as much as our health and artificially auto- genous destiny will allow, while our foreign sales are far less, though stated at about one-fiftieth of the whole. This time of year but few farms change owners, but other realt}" may; but, then, it is only changing mostly from ■170 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I ■ ■ I one citizen to the other, but ever remaining American, ij and all such property, as well as everything conceivable, !' except the Shermanation Army, always sustaining and j maintaining such currency, as they are demanding, above ! the derision and dishonor of despicable, traitorous de- I ceivers and defamers. ' For the week ending May i8, 1893 (the same week in j '92 was 1.2 per cent more), from seventy-eight retail and I wholesale commission stores or shopping communities — commonly called or known as peddling hucksters, but who always have their mail directed and stylishly desire to be addressed as cities, hamlets, towns or villages — we find in population 13,092,000, and in these dull times they report only the few dollars of $1,221,547,406. Such a week's business for the whole peo£.le would amount to $94 per capita, or for four weeks to over $376. . Now, did this one-fifth of the population, or less, have all the money that was outside the treasury? In the next month, June, '93, Carlisle reports that there was in 'the treasury $538,750,000, under bar and bolt and lock and key, safe from thieves, whether banker or any other hold-up, which, of course, could not, through occultism, be in circulation. In August, 1893, the mint reports our whole stock of money, subsidiary silver and all, as $1,631,000,000, from which deduct amount in treasury, $538,750,000, and we get $1,092,250,000, or $129,322,000, less than the whole week's business of less than one-fifth of our population; then, again, the banks claim some $900,000,000 as capital and surplus. This shows plainly that, for the nine-elevenths of our circulating medium, not counting bank paper, that we are paying interest to the banks for it. x\nd, again, there is the shortage of money to be taken into account, of the reserve for deposits that the banks are supposed to hold from circulation. This bank reserve should amount to nearly $1,000,000,000, or within $1,250,000 of all the money out- side of the treasury, as the national banks report depos- its of over $2,000,000,000 and saving banks $1,750,000,000, private banks not reported. The law provides for one- fourth of deposits to be retained in banks, or reserved from circulation, through not loaning it. 171 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Now, can you wonder why we have panics or scarcity of money, to reduce the price of commodities for the bene- fit of Europeans and to reduce the valuation of our wealth and standing among nations, or why it is you hear so many deluded Americans uselessly and foolishly curse the Shermanation Army? For it is the people's own fault principally that does not use, with true patriotism and unerring judgment, their great prerogative, their ballot, and, instead of voting for the best interests of their coun- try, themselves and fellow-man, keep on voting for that weird, airy, chimerical, will-o'-the-wisp, their party. Well, keep right on; you will soon make a complete job of it. As for us, we can go out with the fabulous chickens of Montana and pick pure diamonds and gold nuggets from the dirt, just like the other chickens, even if we are roosters. To the thoughtful mind it would seem as though a circulating medium of sufficient volume, without the intervention of internecine bank paper, to supply the whole people with enough currency to enable them to pay cash for four weeks' purchases or supplies of every nature, would be reasonably consistent with human ideas of justice; strictly equitable, perfectly harmless, barely commensurate with the deserving volume of business, and impossible in or of itself to work any material or monetary injury to the nation ; but would, of itself, soon dissolve and cause to vanish that fiendish ogre and his impish first-born, crucifying credit and papal inferential interest. A four weeks' supply would give about $400 per capita to do the swapping of the country for twenty- four days ; that is, if beer saloons were closed on Sundays and the church contribution box done away with. But if we perpetuate a European system of finance, why not establish other like European systems, as a half million standing army, or a national church, and, to be consis- tent, pay the peacock preacher with "promise to pay," as that is all the Bible offers or gives, a future reward or promise to pay. Wonder how our present pulpit pounder would smile at this primitive proposition of such para- doxical principia! We will now take an average of the six weeks' business. 172 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of five different months, taken at random from a promis- cuous pile of old papers, without selection of any sort : For the week ending Sept. 3, 1893, $ 964,670,000 " 24, " 1,192,255,000 Oct. 5, " 1,286,930,000 Nov. 23, *' 1,104,700,000 Dec. 22, " 1,509,785,000 May 18,1893, 1,221,547,406 (92, ^% more divide by number of weeks 6) |7,279,887.406 Average business for one week of the 4^st part of our population |l,213,314,567f For the total population multiply bysi^: ^_% $6,369,901,476 An average week's exchanges of the people of the United States, which would require a volume of money equal to $94.37 per capita in order for them to pay cash for six days' food, drink, clothing, improvements, etc., and that is all any people have on this little globe, even though they amass and appropriate the earnings of others. It would seem that the amount necessary to carry on this volume of business exchanges for less than a month, or four weeks, would be perfectly safe and strictly com- patible, with the improvements, methods and intelligence of this age. There is not an intelligent individual in the United States who can soar above egotism and re-echo or who can float to that point where he is safe from the influences or promptings of pecuniary or mercenary mo- tives; that is, if such a one has given the subject of ecu- menic economy the attention it deserves and who have not allowed themselves to be drawn into the mad whirl- pool or scramble for griming gain through their grovel- ling innate cupidity; who really believes, or can prove, that if there was $400 per capita to-day in circulation of full legal tender powers, whether it would be gold, silver or legal paper money, or of all three combined, in any proportional volume, that it would or could depreciate as measured by gold, within this country (not Matabela- land), but that it would, on the contrary, cheapen gold instead, not alone in this country, but throughout the world. But we hear so much boshy bugaboo about cheap 173 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS money, unwise speculation, too much circulation, etc.> from those who know that they -misrepresent, even these wild fancies and simply lie, and from those repeating parrots or automatic cuckoos, that it is calculated to give a healthy person the blind staggers or to cause a sane person to loudly lament for the amount of perfidy and ignorance that stalks abroad, even in the light of day. Is there anyone who claims affiliation with any school of political economy that could consistently deny to a people a circulating medium sufficient to carry on two weeks' business on a cash basis? Then, if there is, we say he had better hasten over to the next celebration and forthwith cast his carcass — for there is nothing else left — beneath the wheels of the juggernaut, and say unto him- self or the admiring worshippers, "here goes the vanishing imitation of obsolete book polish !" Money sufficient to carry on two weeks' business on anything like a legal tender cash basis would require at least $220 per capita, and this amount would not yet represent, at a European valuation, the one-seventh of our real property and but one twenty-sixth part of our actual annual transfers or exchanges, and would then allow four exchanges to be made of every single dollar's worth of our annual pro- duction, while nearly one-half of what is consumed is exchanged but twice. If we were situate like England, it might be advisable to make money scarce, for we find in 1890 that her im- ports exceeded her exports by over $762,000,000, or over $20 per capita, that she is forced to purchase in order to live. Now, it is visibly self-evident that she could not exist were it not for the interest she receives from Ameri- can suckers, among the rest. While Germany that year, like others, needed only $226,000,000 excess of imports; France, $122,000,000, and so on with every country in Europe, except two, all of which could not maintain their present population, financial system and standing were it not for the tribute they, in the name of the law, extract from others, and that their national debts are ever on the increase. The two countries excepted above are Russia, who is more than self-supporting to the amount of about $1.40 174 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS jj per capita, excess of exports, and Austria-Hungary, about j $1.25 per capita. That year we exported over imports |j over $1 per capita, and for the twenty years ending 1892 j we averaged over $3 per capita for our present popula- i| tion of excess of exports over imports, which, if we knew i the A, B, C of finance and were honest to ourselves and j had sat down on Sherman-ilk in time, we would now have ; all that, which by this time of itself would yield some || $60 per capita alone; but they are determined to compel I us to contribute to the support of the paupers of Eng- I land and Europe, on the one hand, and on the other, with j all that, and countless millions more, to loll in luxury I the Rothschilds and other foreign barons under the eu- I phoniously evil expression of interest. I We think that we have brought to, or awakened, or I called the attention of the mind of all rational, intelligent, patriotic Americans or others, enough deductions from existing financial facts, systems and customs, both known and practiced in the present, as in the past sombrous and even dark ages, to convince the most hypercritical that any sum less than $200 per capita is not sufficiently com- mensurate with our volume of business transactions and standing (at the head) among nations, and that anyone advocating a less amount does so (possibly from over- caution caused by neural disorder) either from evil de- sign or sheer ignorance of even the rudiments of finance. But, lest that the foregoing should still be found in any manner wanting in convincing proofs, we will hastily glance at the commercial standing of some European territorial districts or nations, and endeavor to simplify some deductions therefrom, in the hope of making it so palpably plain that even the blind can easily see how it is that the Americans are being played for suckers by both foamy financiers, foreign and native born aliens of the Sherman-ilk-old-demi-reps (by the word "demi-reps" is not meant the literal definition of lexicographers). We will examine the few countries, in their respective order, that may be said to have a relative bearing on our monetary condition, affairs or system, using them^ as comparates, in an intrinsically commutative and relative- ly actual or real valuation. 175 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS We find the British Islands, with an area of about the extent of New Mexico (now knocking and seeking for admittance as one of our forty-five states), or the one- thirtieth part of that of the United States. Her stock of legal tender, as she reports it, is $550,000,000 gold, $50,- 000,000 paper, or $15.79 P^^ capita, with $2.63 subsidiary silver. On this $15.79, according to her own Mulhall, 1890, there was a banking capital of $1,430,000,000 — where did they get it?— or $37.36 per capita, or $21.57 per capita, based on and backed by solely Paterson-Sher- man-galling-cheek, or the gas of smokeless powder. The bank deposits, which in England are wholly used as secondary bank capital for loaning purposes, and may all be loaned out as a circulating medium, as there is no bank reserve law for the Bank of England, are given as $3,130,000,000, or $4,550,000,000 capital and deposits, or, as the statistician gives it, $120 per capita of bank cir- culating medium; or $104.21 get-some tender to $1579 legal tender, or nearly $7 live-on-tender to $1 honest money. But it must be admitted that the $7 are at least backed by the hopes of Micawber, while it is also allowed the best intrinsic value the world ever saw, in the synthe- sis of the Shermanic, snivelling sycophants. But, which none can deny, that it does perform, and must, all the functions of absolute money until a money panic or popu- lar fright comes along as a natural, periodical conse- quence, then the "letter of lice-nse" is taken from the closet. And now, then, who dare doubt the absolute powers of the paper money king? We find the United States' bank circulating medium, deducting bank reserves, to be about $49 per capita, or $71 per capita less than that of England, and backed by, or based on, about $23 of absolute money, of which one-fourth is already paper, leaving $26 per capita, backed by the divine gall of the delectably deluding banker, coupled with the mercenary perfi.dy of some and the laisser faire, or let-her-go-Gallagher style, or ignorance of the balance. The bankers and their satellites tell us that gold alone is enough for our circulating medium, and that there is money enough in circulation, because the 176 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Bank of England officials said so. Some people would not tumble if a church steeple toppled on them ! They tell us that the British Islands has only some $i8 per capita, while Mulhall tells us (of course, they wish it kept quiet, so please don't say anything about it) that they have not only that to count on as a national stock of money, but, besides that, we must remember that they have a bank circulating medium of $120 as well, in order to maintain as high as possible the current prices of their exports and to carry on the trade of the two lit- tle islands and also to prevent a depreciation in land values, which ranges from $100 to $300 per acre for farm land. Since we seek but very little information on this subject from any other source but English, he further informs us : That the national debt of the 38,000,000 population of the islands, less the amount of sinking fund, is $87.79 P^^ capita (United States, $14.63), or $3,350,000,000. She would barely sell for twice that amount at forced sale or public auction, for that amount is nearly all the coin gold of the world, and she would not want her price in silver, while on a gold basis, she owes nearly all the gold in the world, and yet we are asked to come to the same eternal debt-doubling,- condition ; to which debt must be added some $760,000,000 per annum, or $20 per capita, that they are forced to purchase and import over exports in order to exist at all ; but the interest they receive from outside suckers keeps their heads above water. But if there was such a thing as universal repudiation and all to make a fresh plunge, it would simply mean the erasure of the nation, of the British Islands, from the political map of the world. See? Why universal repudiation of past un- righteous debts is decried, although it is well known that under the present system they can never be paid? He tells us, further, that the inhabitants of the whole earth are compelled to subscribe some fifty-three cents a head each per year to keep the English people from starving, or, the only other alternative, the comparative depopulation of the little Isles. Also, that the English laboring class or producers, when they cannot raise enough from outside suckers, have to pay for interest, 177 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS national debt, averaged at 3 to 4 per cent., and on bank loans as recorded at 12 per cent, which means at least that bank capital and deposits may be safely averaged at 6 per cent., so that it amounts to another $470,000,000, or $12.50 per capita. American per capita interest on similar debts, according to those reported, averaging it even at 10 per cent., only amounts to $6.40 per capita. That, in order to keep the country intact at all, it is absolutely necessary to permanently maintain for a ter- ritory the size of one-fifth less than the size of Montana, six times a larger force of men in the army and navy than that required for or in the United States. That they are compelled to build and maintain an enormous merchant navy or marine, at an absolute loss to the well-being of all society, but which must continue or end in national decay, in order to try to peddle their fabrications to other nations more fortunate than they, and to collect from all over the world the surplus provisions, to them abso- lutely necessary for human subsistence, as most of their people get tired living on London fog and 'alf-and-'alf charity. So that, view it as we may, as a national enterprise the British Islands is a losing investment, and a miser- ably poor criterion to go by in adopting any measure or system whatever, of social science or integrant structural part of such; and cannot, by any possible method of reasoning be apprised at the one-twelfth even of our relative, commutable, intrinsic valuation. But for the nonce allow the one-twelfth. Then her national debt amounts to about one-half of her real valuation ; and her banking capital — wherever they find it — of $1,420,000,- 000, exceeding the one-third of the national debt and also exceeding the one-fifth of her total comparative valuation on an $80,000,000,000 United States valuation basis, while her national stock of money is the one-tenth of her total valuation or wealth. How is that for honest money? The disunited Islands have two and one-fifth acres per capita, including roads, town sites, building lots, etc., while the United States have, excluding large lakes, thirty-four acres per capita for 67,500,000, or nearly twice her population, or more than sixteen times wealthier in 178 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the mother of all productions, land. Our national debt, the one-eightieth of our wealth at an English estimate, or forty times better off regarding national debt, in pro- portion to national wealth on the same basis. Our bank- ing capital, less than one-hundredth part of our total valu- ation. Why should not our commodities and real property be cheap ? England's total relative wealth valuation, or the one-twelfth of the United States' $80,000,000,000, amounts to only $210 per capita for her population. Her total stock of legal tender, limited, silver tender and total bank circulation of every available kind, capital, depos- its, etc., $138.40 per capita, or $30 each, more than one- half her total wealth, on that $80,000,000,000 United States basis and the statistics of her dearlv beloved Mul- hall. The United States* total circulation, from all similar sources as the above only amounts to $73.34 per capita, or a little over one-half that of the little Islands. While our comparative total valuation amounts to over $1,208 per capita, or six times more than theirs, and sixteen and one-half times more than all our circulating sources of every description, while they have nearly twice as much of all sorts of circulating medium. Do you wonder why now how it is that our realty is low in market price, compared with other countries? Yet we are told that we have enough money in circulation, we must avoid un- wholesome speculation, and have honest money, and in the same breath we are told and counseled to pattern by England, with, the one-fifth to one-half her total wealth in circulation. Oh, when can we remove the financially suicidal scales placed on our eyes by the home and foreign dissembling, rapacious, mortgage-clutching, interest-lap- ping leeches! Why not place in circulation as absolute money the one- fifth of our total "English estimate" wealth, say, $16,000,- 000,000, or $242 per capita, and have it all absolute money, instead of one-seventh legal tender money and six-sevenths counterfeit paper of the banks or I promise to pay, forty-eight hours after Gabriel shoots off his bugle? Or why not place the one-tenth of our total wealth, which should be $200,000,000,000, but, say S80,- 179 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 000,000,000, in circulation as absolute money, $8,000,- 000,000, or $121 per capita, if you still want the banks to loan out the other half, then we may get it at i per cent. per annum ; that is, if you cannot yet agree or decide to cast from you those Satanic institutions, the banks. See ! You may here notice that we only denounce the inani- mate things, and not, like the great Thomas Jefferson, calling the bankers, singly and collectively, hell-hounds! No, we are not near as heavily built as Jeff}^ was. Germany or the German Empire, contains an area of less than one-seventeenth of ours, or 50,000 square miles less than Texas. She has 49,500,000 population, a combined national debt of $1,950,000,000, or an average of $40 per capita, some members of the federation owing more than others; United States, $14.63. Germany's stock of national legal tender is $810,000,000, or $16.38 per capita; limited tender silver, $2.16 per capita, or $108,- 000,000. Her bank capital is about one-half her national money, or $425,000,000; deposits, but $730,000,000, or her total bank circulating medium only $25 per capita. These figures are by Mulhall, and therefore need have no doubt about it but that we can clearly see that Germany is in no sense the ''wild fiat money"" country that England is, as Germany's total bank source circulation is but $233,- 000,000 more than her national stock of money, or $4.85 per capita, which leads to the inference that the people entertain a righteous fear of banks, and circulate to a . great extent their own money, and it also shows unmis- takably a far healthier financial condition than England, and less unwholesome, foul-gas speculation. But from an American point of view^ a very poor spec- ulation, on the whole, since she finds it necessary to keep five soldiers and one horse permanently guarding every two square miles of territory, and twenty men and three horses ever ready at tap of drum or strum of trumpet, whenever needed, to hold her down ! Fritzy. Also as large a navy as she can scrape up pfennings genug to sup- port. She requires a donation of sixteen cents per capita from all the other inhabitants of the globe in order to keej3 her out of Davy Jones's locker. She received $1,000,000,000, or over $20 per capita from 180 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS France some twenty years ago, but that is all gone some- where, and we find her in debt $1,950,000,000, or $1,000,- 000,000 more than her whole stock of money. So, with about $40 per capita combined national debt; $4.50 per capita more imports than exports; with only two and eight-elevenths acres per capita, instead of thirty-four, or less than one-twelfth our per capita land wealth; twenty times the army to support ; only one-tenth of our live stock ; one-thirtieth of our gold production ; one-fif- tieth of our silver production; one-half of our iron, and one-half of our steel productions ; the one fifty-fourth of our coal area; the one-tenth of our copper production (according to Merton & Co., London) ; our forest area is more than three times the total area of all the German Empire, which, at only $20 per acre, ought to be worth all Germany; with only one-third our dairy products; the one-eleventh of our tobacco; with only the one-fifth of our wool ; with a little over one-third of our textile, hard- ware, clothing, beer, spirits and leather manufactures; in 1890-91, according to Consul-General Goldschmidt, her principal cereal production, wheat, was but the one-sev- enth of ours ; cotton, none ; we would compare her wiene- wuerst and limburger, aber das ist uns, zu gering. We have tried all methods of calculation, from Ray's arithmetic up, and through his algebra, and even consult- ed Euclid himself, but failed to bring Germany's poten- tially commutable and intrinsically comparative wealth up to the one-tenth of the relative American wealth or indispensable realty. But we find her on the $80,000,000,000 basis, with more than one-tenth of her wealth as a circu- lating medium of absolute intercommutable gold, silver and paper money, and a circulating medium from all sources, national stock, total bank deposits and bank stock, amounting to the three-eighths of her total wealth, or over $3,000,000,000, or $61 per capita. Our correspond- ingly relative circulation would amount to $447 per cap- ita. This latter information is given for the producing scapegoats only, as the interest fiend and his aberrant advocates are well aware of such facts, so in the latter's case its reiteration would be but a waste of printer's ink, if nothing more. 181 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS France is in about the same relative category as Ger- many, with a larger national debt, of nearly $6,000,000,- 000, not allowing for sinking fund, less sinking fund, about $4,500,000,000, but paid $1,000,000,000 of that to Germany about twenty years ago. She has a little smaller area than Germany, or 60,000 square miles less than Texas. With less than the one-hundredth of our coal area; one of her colonies, Algiers, produces less than the one- hundredth part of our copper, or about 160 tons per annum; less than the one-sixth of our iron and steel; in 1890 she produced the l/i20th part of our gold, and one-twentieth of our silver, annual productions ; less than one-half of our wool ; one-sixteenth part of our tobacco ; one-fourth of our dairy products; a little over one-third of our wheat ; cotton, none ; two-sevenths of our manufac- tures of textiles, clothing, hardware, beer, spirits and leather; twenty-three times our standing army; a far larger navy ; about $3 per capita in excess of imports. So, to be consistent, we cannot place her higher than at one-tenth of our valuation, while we find her with three and one-third acres per capita, which fact alone keeps her from bankruptcy, as her national debt is enor- mous, which is, less the money in the sinking fund, $116.35 P^r capita, though which seems to have a salutary effect on her people by inculcating in them a holy horror for banks and interest, as the following figures show: On the $80,000,000,000 United States basis, we find France with about one-fifth of her total wealth repre- sented by her national stock of intercommutable gold, silver and paper money, nearly $40 per capita full legal tender and about $1.25 per capita limited tender, while her total bank capital, $700,000,000, is $91,000,000, less than one-half of her total national stock of money, $1,581,- 000,000. Her total banks and savings banks deposits are but $1,199,000,000, or $30.70 per capita, and are $382,- 000,000, or $9.86 per capita less than her total national stock of money, while our deposits are $2,300,000,000 more than our total national stock of money. Is there not a plain lesson in this — how a small country can pay interest on an enormous national debt, without going much deeper into either private or national debt, simplv 182 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS by avoiding, as much as possible, that accursed banking || system, with its vampire interest? We find that her cir- ,1 culating medium, from all potential sources, national I stock, bank capital and all deposits, aggregate about j $3,500,000,000, or only $90 per capita; yet it would on the I $80,000,000,000 basis represent the seven-sixteenths of j $8,000,000,000, or her total wealth. Our comparative per j capita circulating medium of national stock of absolute i money alone would amount to $239 per capita. Our me- j dium of all potential circulation, such as national stock, I bank capital and all deposits, would amount to $522 per capita, and then there would be no kick a-coming if we owed $60,000,000,000, or $90.00 per capita ! ! ! Now, if a country like France, with not the one-tenth of our resources, can borrow of bankers $6,000,000,000, which would leave her estimated by usurers and money loaners generally at three times the loan, or $18,000,000,- 000, then the question forges to the front, Where can Mulhall and all our imbecile cuckoos and parrot-prating appraisers unearth any other numbers or figures than $180,000,000,000 in calculating our representative or rela- tive measure of wealth? Every true American wonders continually why it is that no newspaper or other publica- tion can be found, with the slightest shadow of even luke- warm patriotism left, to prompt them to humbly petition our self-appointed, imitating and mercenary appraisers to deal out to us some smoky impartiality when setting an estimate on American wealth, resources, institutions and manhood, for it seems they will measure others in their own bushel. We hope that the Arkansas Traveller and the Arizona Kicker will take this hint and in future make the air resound with patriotic yelps about Ameri- can uselessness and servility. Austria-Hungary is lower in the scale of comparison than the preceding countries. Her territory is a little less than France, but her population 3,000,000 more. Her national debt is $70.84 per capita; her coal area insig- nificant ; one-tenth our iron and steel ; less than one-hun- dredth of our copper; one twenty-eighth our wool; une- third of our tobacco; one-fifteenth of our wheat; land, onlv three acres per capita ; one-seventh of our manufac- 183 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tures of textiles, hardware, beer, clothing, spirits and leather; our forests are nearly four times her total area; her army is about fifteen times larger than ours; her dairy products, one-fifth of ours. So that her comparative wealth cannot be reasonably placed at other than the one-fourteenth of ours. Yet we find her with $i per capita gold and $6 per capita uncovered paper. Now, with our $9 per capita gold, this system would entitle us to six times our amount of gold for a legal tender paper currency, or about $54 per capita of full legal tender greenbacks alone, not taking into account our fourteen times more wealth. How is that for gold standard, scarce money? Are the Austrians de- serving of more credit than the Americans? But in this connection we should not forget to inform, with good grace, the Joneses and Stoneses that this Austrian paper is not made a legal tender for Mississippi, Alabama or Arkansas, but just for Austria alone; neither are their gold florins, which are simply bartered at their commer- cial price, which is established or fixed by law, and that all mints are open to them at a legal and fictitious ratio. We find her with $40,000,000 gold, $90,000,000 silver and $260,000,000 paper uncovered, or per capita, $1 gold, $2.25 silver and $6.50 paper, which the whole people, and not their traitors, back it, or total national stock, $9.75. Fourteen times this would give us a national stock of $136.50 per capita full legal tender. Her bank capital is $225,000,000, or over five and one-half times the amount of her gold and nearly twice the amount of her total gold and silver. Where do they get all this bank capital? Her total bank and savings bank deposits are $1,123,000,- 000, . or twenty-eight and one-fourth times her stock of gold. Her total deposits, bank capital and national stock would give her a combined potential circulation of $43.45 per capita, which should make ours fourteen times that amount, or $608.30 per capita; or, in another way, her total circulating resources amount to nearly one-third of her total wealth. Then why not have the corresponding $26,000,000,000 for ours? These seem to be hard shots, coming from such a slow country as Austria, and it really seems that the pellets are delivered faster than they were 184 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS in her muzzle-loading war of 1866. Italy bears a worse comparative proportion of relative wealth than any of the foregoing countries. We find her area similar to Nevada, and about the same as Arizona or Colorado, or far less than half the size of Texas. She possesses two and one-fourth acres per capita, her population being placed at 31,000,000. Her national debt is $2,324,000,000, or $76.06 per capita. If Colorado had such a sum as her part or share of our national debt to pay, $2,324,000,000, you can try to imagine how the present truthful, honest, patriotic Gov- ernor would devise a just and equitable legal tender sys- tem that would enable that State to pay off such an in- debtedness in far less time than Italy, and have a fastidi- ous, fancy, frothy Senator to steal his plans, to aid the nation, financially lamed by traitors, over the stony street, that was strewn with rocky wrecks of blasted hopes, scattered far and wide by an artificial panic, and instead of the paper or silver dollar, suggested by the true American Governor, who never believed that the financial affairs of the nation could be properly adjusted by parting his hair in the middle, being dubbed a fan- dango dollar, it would then be right royally baptized in a flood of Extra Sec, and be solemnly christened as honest money, the "Dollar of Grace." We might ask poor Mexico whither we are drifting, but we recall the fact in our history that we once before, instead of asking Mexico to help us and hold the light for us, so that we can see where we are at, we by law declared the Spanish-milled dollar a full fledged legal tender American dollar, and, young as we were then, we did not have to act the fool before the world and ask Mexico for something to sober up on. We find Italy with a gold and silver production so small that both do not amount to the i/30odth part of our gold production ; her iron and steel is less than one- twenty-fourth of ours ; her copper less than one-fortieth ; her coal is so insignificant that it is below any consider- able comparison; our forest area is more than six times her total area; our coal area is nearly twice her total area ; her wool the one-fourteenth of ours ; her daily prod- 18s PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ucts the one-twelfth; one-sixth of our wheat; one-four- teenth of our manufactures of leather, clothing, beer, spirits, hardware and textiles; only two and one-fourth acres per capita ; more than ten times our army, with less than one-half our population ; $2.80 per capita excess of imports over exports, and $76.06 per capita national debt, with only $3 per capita in gold to pay for it all. She is certainly in a poor plight to stand comparison. but if everyone else was as found of tapioca pudding as we are, then there might be an excuse to be partial to her. .but for the sake of infallibility, we cannot very well place her correspondingly reasonable and natural valuation at any more than the one-thirtieth of that of our relative wealth and resources. We find her with a national stock of $307,000,000 ; $93,- 000,000 gold; $16,000,000 legal tender silver and $163,500,- 000 full legal tender or uncovered paper mone}^ and $34,- 200,000 subsidiary silver, or total, $9.91 per capita. She has nearly $2 paper to $1 of gold. Now, if we had our moderate and just proportionate amount, we would have at least $297,30 per capita, in the proportion of about $100 metallic tokens and $197.30 paper tokens or green- backs, all full legal tender and interchangeable with gold and silver. Or, if we only had thirty times her national stock, instead of her relative per capita, we would have $136.44 per capita of national stock, to which, we suppose, you would add the bank elephant circulation at 1^ per cent. Her bank capital is but $125,000,000; her total de- posits, $761,000,000; national stock, $307,000,000; total circulating resources, $1,194,000,000 (population of Italy proper, 29,500,000) ; about $39.75 per capita. With thirty times this, we would have a relative total potential me- dium of $35,670,000,000, or $532 per capita. How does that suit? Let us examine briefly that busy, little country we hear so much about ever since that half-wholey King William and Mary went over to, to carry on that great and glorious campaign in — the Netherlands, or lowlands, or Holland; it was larger then than now. Indeed, some people are prone to make light of the most important events in the world's history, and would even liken that 186 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS memorable campaign to a common raid by one of our Indian chiefs, such as Rain-in-the-Face, because, as they pertly remark, poor Billy did not have sense enough to come in out of the wet, and that he was so excited when he got the loan of that £1,000,000 through Pater- son the Pirate, which loan was the foundation of the Bank of England, and is still due and unpaid ; that he started off without waiting to pull on his boots, or, as they put it, barefoot. Now, we think that here they are mistaken, for even as early as his day the people wore boots made of straw-rope, so intricately wound around the foot that the wearer was compelled to sleep in his boots. See ! No doubt the assertion arises from an over- sight of this undeniable fact. The Netherlands contain an area of the 1/284 1 h part of that of the United States, or about one-half the extent of West Virginia, not one-half South Carolina, nor one- fourth Alabama, not one-fifth Missouri, but about the area of Maryland. It has a population of nearly 4,500,- 000; it has one and three-fourths acres per capita and a national debt of $430,500,000, or $95,56 per capita; nothing small about that, a debt amounting to $54.60 per acre, for all her little land and water! Our comparative debt, with 284 acres to her one, would be $120,615,000,000, or $1,786 per capita. That would be a fair price for Missouri land, with five and three-fourths times her area and only three-fifths the population of the Netherlands. If the people of Missouri had their relative share, ac- cording to their population and area and consequent wealth of an equitable national stock alone, they would have $278.43 per capita, as the national stock of the 'Netherlands, of gold, silver and full legal tender and inter- convertible paper money is $28.88 per capita. Since the fence was taken down is a Missourian not as good as a platt-Deutscher? Her mineral and metallic productions are so small that no one would give any statistics of them, although she produces considerable salt ; her dairy production, the one-eighth, and her wheat the one-fifteenth; her manu- factures of clothing, beer, spirits, hardware, leather and textiles are but the one-fiftieth of ours. She exists prin- 187 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS cipally on barter, dairy and wheat; her imports and ex- ports amounting to $220 per capita, but her excess of im- ports amounts to $19 per capita per annum, so that her total productions, and profits of barter, fall short $85,000,- 000 of supporting her population, or, in other words, the balance of the people of the world are taxed six cents each for her support, but it will all be- paid back when Rothschild makes his will, then is the time when Ameri- can chumps will tumble to the racket. So will it ever be, debts running up and ability to pay them decreasing, while the present monetary system prevails, and individuals and corporations are allowed to collect interest on the public circulating medium, with- out at least the total amount of interest being issued as a part principal directly and annually by the government to the people, which of itself would tend to lower the rate of interest, if nothing more; just so long can the producer starve, if he chooses, but he must allow the banker to revel in luxury on" the productions of others. The poor, little country is forced to support more than three and one-half times that of our army, or over seven men to the square mile. They are a very busy people, iDUt, like a whole lot of American financial cuckoos; they are ever trying to pay a $10 debt with a $1 bill, and pay 10 per cent, interest on the $10, and still have the $1 as a charm, while they try it just once again, and see if they can't make it win this time ; neither of which seem as yet to be convinced that twice two are only four, but are still wholly engrossed, guessing how many beans make five. In order to allow our enemies to prove that for once we were lavishly liberal, and that we reason like a wild, ignorant spendthrift, who has been qualified for finance by owning a gold mine, we will, without regard to ex- pense, place her relative wealth at the one-hundredth part of that of the United States, although we know that the pro rata part is too much. She has $25,000,000 gold; $61,800,000 legal tender silver; $40,000,000 legal tender paper, and $3,200,000 subsidiary silver. If gold alone was only to be considered, this proportion would allow us to have on our stock of gold $604,000,000; total coinage of 188 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS full tender silver dollars of $1,493,000,000, and issue $966,- 000,000 full* tender greenbacks, or $45.40 per capita of national stock alone, and not taking into account our 100 times more wealth, for this would leave it at $4,500 per capita. Her bank capital is but $70,000,000, or a little over half her national stock. Her total deposits are but $70,000,000 ; since being situ- ate close to France, like them, they have learned the evils of banks and interest. Her bank capital, total deposits and national stock amount to $270,000,000, makiijg a total circulating medium from all possible sources. Suppose we take fifteen times that for our population; then loO' times that for our relative wealth ! Let us not have those figures printed ; but take 100 times only for the re- sources, which would give $27,000,000,000, or $400 per capita, only the one-half of which, or $13,500,000,000, would be total bank capital and deposits and the other one-half full-blooded national United States stock, and yet that is but the one-fifteenth of what we compara- tively deserve. Do we hear any croaking objections to the above? No? Well, get a move on yourself ! By carefully observing the few brief illustrations above, others more numerous and lucid will present themselves to the intelligent and unbiased mind, from which incon- trovertible deductions must be drawn, to set aside all doubt, as to the inadequacy of even $200 per capita to suffice for our just, equitable and proper circulating me- dium. Such illustrative conclusions and reasonable de- ductions may eventually lead our blind leaders, who have been ruthlessly wandering in the wake of our politi- cal and financial enemies, to sound the national tocsin, so that we wander not aimlessly into the chaotic whirl- pool of debt, designedly prepared for us by reptant rogues, but filial and foreign feigning financiers, and a few of our Congressional fakirs. But the kid-glove, walking advertisement and fine- haired gentlemen, who, in the hope of establishing our economic equilibrium, unerringly part their hair in the centre, may interpose some objections, such as — well, the area of a country is not to be taken as a sure guide in such matters, for there is the intrinsic value to be considered^ 189 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS as well as other conditions. Oh ! Then how theatrically wise they look, when, parrot-like, they repeat what to them are occult conundrums! We find either California, Montana, Colorado or New Mexico each possessing- greater intrinsic possibilities, both mineral and agricul- tural, than the British Islands ever possessed, since, as the Romans claim, they discovered them. True, the Brit- ish Islands are surrounded by the sea. But this is of doubtful advantage to any nation, except those that are not self-supporting and who are com- pelled to peddle their wares of handicraft in order to obtain, through political charity, the necessary food to exist. But such trade on the part of such a nation is com- pulsory and fruitlessly expensive to society in general. A nation can be rich and wealthy only when its natural productions are fully equal to its own consumption, at least, and whose foreign purchases are but gew-gaws and noxious stimulants. Just as if a farm of lo acres could not support two families, then let one possess it, and let the other move off. somewhere else, as there is plenty of good land sufficient for to supply the increase of the earth's population for the next 300 years in South America and Africa. It is to be hoped that the foreign commerce of the United States will ever be on the decline, for we need to buy nothing and sell commodities of real intrinsic value and receive in return 999 parts of imagination and, maybe, one part of inherent value ; but we will have to continue now selling our life-giving realities' for purely imaginary bubbles until we pay off the penalty imposed on us by the Court of Patriotic Education for blindly walking into the trap set for us by unconscionable, schem- ing scoundrels by doing their bidding and creating for ourselves what would and could have been better done without — a debt that would puzzle Columbus if he should drop in on us some fine day. All are agreed that money is but the representative or representing measure or reckoner of actual value or merit, and that in reality it is not a realty, and that each dollar, or integrant measure, should have a universally admitted or agreed upon dollar's worth of real value for 190 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS it to represent, or, as is commonly called, to back it, and that such money, when recognized or issued by society or g-overnment, is honest money only, and none other. That, then, is an absolute, indisputable fact. Now, then, without going into any elaborate abstract inductions or using any high-rolling deductions, let us plainly state that it may be laid down as an axiom of sound monetary science that any dollar representing more than $i worth of national wealth is a dishonest dollar and a forgery, because of its representing or measuring more than $i worth, and thus being inevitably made to purchase more than $1 worth, since it is admitted by all that the volume in circulation determines the purchasing power of a dollar. From the foregoing irrefutable economic fact, the mon- etary scientific maxim immutably and unconquerably stands forth as a statuesque, stautory protocol, declaring that no nation, or any nation, can issue or cause to be issued, placed or emitted too much money into circula- tion, with that proper security, dollar for dollar, that wisdom and prudence dictates, except that it unwisely Issues a larger volume than that which equals the total national universal wealth ; and none other volume of money but that which is as possible in human affairs equals the total wealth of a nation, is, or can be, truly honest money for any volume of a more or less degree, yields an opportunity for unjust, unwholesome specula- tion. Therefore, when any nation is casting around, even in clear water, for an equitable monetary system, to pro- duce a happy or felicitous medium of barter or exchange, it will find that there are but few safe anchorages for their financial ship of state. One of them is for the nation to issue all the money on approved security, at nominal cost, that its own citizens may apply for. And all such citizens to be compelled to place in United States depositories all money that they may possess over from three to five times the per capita circulating medium not actually needed for immediate employment. Another might be to open the mints to the free coinage of gold and silver, as before, and government to issue 191 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS paper money for all public improvements deemed pru- dent, necessary and progressive, and adopt a strictly observed constitutional stipulation, or rigid statutory enactment, providing for the prohibition of the pay, or receiving of any interest, increment or emolumental yield for the use of money by any citizen or citizens v^ithin the jurisdiction of that nation, and also providing ade- quate penalties for anyone attempting to, or destroying, or perverting money from its true function of circulation, by amassing it or renting it out for hire, as money is an uncreative, impotential, inert commodity of itself, and but a creature of man's imagination, and regulated by socie- tary law, v^hich endows it only with unallured, untram- nieled, voluntary debt paying or liquidating powers, but this law cannot create in it the attribute of regeneration or increase, if it did or if it could, then the law of inter- est would be as fixed and constant or unvacillant as the law of legal tender, intended and expressed, but no such intention or expression was ever contemplated for inter- est, the rightful definition for which, then, must be select or polite robbery. 19; PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART V. NATIONAL BANKS. History of some national banks. — Venice. — England. — Sub-treasury plan. — Land bank, Chamberlin. — Dead broke half-king. — Billy Pater- son of Paternoster row. — Doors of the world. — Bank of England chartered 1694 and denounced by over 99 per cent, of the English people. — What McCauley and Rogers say. — The annihilator of equity. — The incensed, betrayed people. — Piratical advice. — Chamberlin's land bank bill passed 1696. — Part the king played. — Netherland cam- paign. — People threaten to return the Stuarts. — First run on the bank. — Continued hostility to the bank. — Pitt's connection with it.; — Letter of license. — Sense of parliament. — Will suckers become trout? — Did the paper money depreciate? — Pitt putting the screws to Shylock. — When does the bank pay cash? — Run of 1825. — Intrinsic value of the notes. — Peel act of 1844. — Panics of 1847-57-66. — Patriotic forgery. — Hanging the corpse. — Our bankers imitating and emulating England. — Basis of blood. — Hazzard circular. — Addendum. — How ridiculous. — Next robbing scheme. — Funding act. — Credit destroying act. — American people and the renowned Chopenhauer. — Bewitching the silver. — Then commodity-monetization. — Iconographic insanity. — Na- tional bankers circular. — Religious press, eh ! — Words from war patriots. — Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Henry Wilson, Sal. P. Chase, Abe Lincoln. — Suspension of government silver traffic. — Then, oh then, the bonds. — Bankers ineligible for Congress. — Bank panic circular. — Extra session of 1893. — Answer of a North Carolina Democrat and a Connecticut Republican.^Why be surprised at the action of bank- ers. — Sirocco in the U. S. Senate. — Printer, stop ! I'm mad ' The history of the national banks show them to be the primal, baleful bane, the cankerous curse, the parasitical incubus and satanic vampire of all productive and thrifty society! Created, as they were, through the in- stinct of innate, designing knaves, and of the reaving, des- potic ruler, as a coefficient tax, interest or duty collector to assist in allaying and satiating the raging rapine of that rapacious regime, and had their baptism solemnized through the wonted warm waves of human blood from the wreck of the weak or defenceless, who might be- tray signs of easy conquest or who might meekly expostu- late against the fitful whims of the demoniacal extor- tioner; and to enable all those lecherous leiges who 193 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS \ might claim the most remote connection or affiliation, by blood or otherwise, purchased by lurid lucre or luscious lust, to luxuriously revel in defiled despumation, through the despoliation of the wealth of him who creates all — the laborer. In this land of freedom and equality, the illegitimate offspring of that merciless, miasmatic mon- strosity, should be securely shackled or expelled from our land, and its corrupting cacoethes and desecrating marks forever expunged. Such language, indeed, might possibly sound slightly impolitic, immoderate, or inharmonious to the ear of the banker of our day, and very different from the eclectic doctrines taught by the interest-gluttonous-eating fra- ternity to their disciples. But we presumptively hope for pardon from the knowledge of the fact that such lan- guage is in unison with true American spirit, and borne out by impartial, unadulterated history; and if, per- chance, he persists in believing or adhering to such doc- trines, or in endeavoring to perpetuate such a vital-sap- ping, devil-fish institution, let him migrate, bank and all, over to the stamping ground of the First National Bank of modern, or, rather, mediaeval Europe. There he will find the living proof in the squalor and poverty of its people, of the sophistries of the self-styled and so-called modern financial philosophers, and,, perchance, some page or padre might point out to him some archaeological relic of a once-famous Republic, dragged from its lofty pedes- tal and buried in the mocking mire of mephitic mercen- ary memories by the treacherous caress of that seductive octopus, the national bank. If this liberty-lapping institution is much longer al- lowed to go on unrestrained, or unchecked, the anarchist and his methods of to-day will be but as the tiny toddler with his firecracker on equality the Fourth is to the loo- ton gun of the anarchist of the future. But the anarchist of to-day, and of the future is and will be but the logical result of the tax-consuming, strife-producing, lazy, lolling lordling and flippant, flitting financier, with their fairy-like, fascinated prey of political poltroons, in their tempting, un- interrupted march to social annihilation. In this age of enterprise and colossal achievements 194 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS it is necessary to have moneyed institutions of exchange for the better facilitation of commercial transactions, both great and small — maybe national depositories, maybe banks of deposit, and maybe banks of loan — but it is the widely known and fully expressed past, present and future demand of the great masses that the govern- ment shall never delegate to corporations or individuals that power to them delegated by the states, the issuing, coining and regulation of all money, and should it ever be deemed wise for the government to waive that right, or any part thereof, by right it must revert to the states from which it emanated or was derived. In order to give a slight idea of the inspiration from which national banks were derived, we will take a cur- sory glance at the Bank of Venice and a more extended one at its imitative successor, that idol of our own anglo- maniacs, the Bank of England. The Bank of Venice was the first bank in the history of modern Europe. Venice, before it succumbed to the money-mongers' seduction, was at the head of commercial and maritime nations, but, being a Republic, Genoa was always urged on by divine- righted blood to harass and annoy Venice by almost per- petual wars until the government found itself, as Lin- coln found this country in 1861, without money, but Lin- coln being refused, by the ever-unpatriotic slave, to money, a sufficient loan to carry on hostilities, did not resort to measures as Venice did ; he created money — that inimitable, life-offering, forty-cent greenback — but the Government of Venice, in accordance with the light given them, resorted to forced loans from the Shylock-lords of that day. The government established depositories for the collec- tion of those forced loans, and from which to pay the annual interest which, we are told, was promptly and punctually done for over 500 years, while the government alone conducted the bank; this lasted until the evil day when the nation was forced to succumb, in 1798, through the fawning flattery and fiendish design of faithless finan- ciers, in conjunction with a ruthless war waged by that inhuman tyrant who but a few years after met a well- deserved fate, when he died the prisoner of a more cun- 195 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ning, brutal lion, execrated and unmourned, on a for- lorn isle, inhabited by rats, that burrowed in his black- ened heart. These depositories were consolidated as one in 1171 A. D. ; it received deposits in coin, but paid none out, sim- ply transferring- one name to another on the books. The Jews of Europe loudly praised it as the chief factor of Venetian success, but this was when they were getting in their fine work on Republican institutions. They went so far as to say that its credits were at a pre- mium over clipped coins (they could not stop the clipping business, though). But we find, through the perfidy of bank officials, European Jews and that French heroic hyena, the erasure of the Venetian Republic from the maps of Jewdom. Americans, beware ! Jealously guard the financial liberties of this brightest spot on the planet earth. The Bank of England was chartered by act of Parlia- ment in 1694, just 200 years ago. During this time, and for years prior to and after its establishment, the reflect- ing, patriotic mind was fully convulsed and absorbed with the thought of, and steadily devising plans for, how to escape the thralldom of the interest to the money-loan- ing leeches, and in devising plans for financial freedom among the very numerous measures proposed, showing by their numbers and diversified devices how keenly the people felt the gnawing effects of usury, as dull as all were at that time on the subject of finances, as a sixteen- year-old boy now in our public schools knows more than their most praised financial philosophers did then, for, as we have an English authority, writing in 1868, Ernest Seyd, in his work on finance tells us that even in 1816 that there was no theory in England or elsewhere on the single gold standard; there was one, though crude at that time and now, which promised relief to the multi- tudes. The measure devised was the production of one Hugh Chamberlain, who is by our own money sharks and crouching, snivelling scribblers of to-day, roundly tra- duced yet, because his idea will not down, as a quack who prepared himself for the solution of financial problems 196 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS by studying- medicine. Oh, what an awful crime, and what treason, even to believe in such a craze, sophistries, half-truths, panaceas, etc., etc., as such an idiot could conceive ! Anticipating reader, it was the Sub-Treasury plan; true it was crude and rough hewn then, by which may be judged with accuracy, the comparatively blunt financial intelligence of those who submitted to the enact- ment of the present Bank of England scheme. In 1690 Chamberlain produced a scheme for what he called a land bank, which provided that notes or green- backs should be issued on landed estates only to the full value of the estate, which should be pledged for the notes' redemption, or as security for the loan ; it went further, also, to allow a loan in these notes for the annual income also of the property for the number of years for which it was pledged. While the genuinely philosophical measure underlying this scheme is plainly discernible, yet it bears little else in comparison with the Sub-Treas- ury plan of to-day, as that does not propose to issue money enough to represent the one-tenth of the total land value of the entire country. The plan, however, was considered in parliamentary committee, which, in reporting it favorably to the House, said in effect : "That after maturely considering the measure, for which they took ample time to consider it in all its presumed opera- tions, that they were unanimously convinced that it was thoroughly practicable, and would be of everlasting bene- fit to the nation at large" ; but it was never acted upon. Here we come to where Shylock got his work in. As every one may know the money-mongers of that day, as well as of this, were divided into two classes, one class represented by what we would now call the Rothschilds, the other by the appellation of the Chatham street pawn-brokering Jews. The bankers of Amsterdam and Genoa, long before the time of which we now write, always availed themselves of every opportunity and, bid- ing their time, at regular intervals would set agents at work to work up other bank schemes, among which was one particularly prompted by the Bank of Amsterdam and fathered by one Billy Paterson, whose scholarly at- tainments, previous gentlemanly avocation and benign 197 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS religious training, which so eminently fitted him to be the most appropriate person to whose lot, fate, could have commanded and committed the founding of the Bank of England, who we will, bye and bye contrast wath that ever-to-be-remembered idiot, Hugh Chamberlin, the quack. We are told that this all happened in the reign of King William and Mary (but they forgot to mention who was on top). But William, like all other idiotic kings of his day, was always in difficulty with some country or other, and consequently, to use, an expression ominously famil- iar to most of us, was always dead broke, and the islands in such a bankrupt condition that it was always borrow- ing from every one and everywhere, and the debts that it contracted then has never been paid since or yet, which debt constitutes the legal tender intrinsic value of $75,- 000,000 of Bank of England notes up to 1880, at least, al- through we see by our mint (julep) report of August, '93, that it is but $50,000,000, and for every $1 of that amount of the debt, there is a $1 English greenback issued with absolute legal tender qualities. At that time the landed proprietors, whose title to the lands generally came to them through confiscation, could not raise $1 — the Jews who had some refusing to loan any to them, on account of the existing hostilities be- tween them, arising from the very different financial methods, which each in turn urged the government to adopt,, and as Parliament, with the aid of the theodolite and the best astronomers of that age, could never deter- mine where they were at, it will be more easily imagined and better than ever described, the deplorable financial condition of the island at that time ; even the king in some cases having to pay as high as 40 per cent, for the loan of money, and those not directly helping poor Mary to rule the roost had to pay as high as 60 per cent., a simi- lar rate to that now paid by a majority of our people, the poor throughout the Southwest and"^ Northwest and at times all over our country. As an excuse for this existing state of affairs, or high rate of interest at that time, through the glib pen of the monometallic theorist or scarce money advocate, we are 198 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS told that it was caused by a King Charles the 11./^ in a previous reign, by his most infamous conduct in seiz- ing some $6,000,000 that the Jews and goldsmiths had deposited in the exchequer; but right here they forgot themselves by telling in the same accounts that he always paid a fair interest for its use. Just imagine what a panic it should cause for an emulative government to force a loan of $6,000,000 from such a great and glorious people, for which he paid interest, in order to save the honor of and maintain possession of their country. We are told that from that fatal day Charley's finan- cial matters grew worse until the government of William and Mary found themselves at the mercy of the Jewish street usurers, and as early as 1691 the government was publicly casting around for some likely scheme that would bring them safe out of their dilemma. Among all the measures proposed by the fanciful financial philoso- phers, that of Chamberlain found most favor, its support being universal, wnth the exception of the money loaners or professional interest gatherers. The landed proprie- tors were jubilant over it ; the merchants supported it ; the masses hailed the idea wnth delight ; the king favored it, and Parliament, u.p to 1693, or even afterwards, found no fault with it, but instead its committee reported it favorably, and now^ w^e come back again to this Paterson, who as early as 1691, laid his scheming plan before the king and Parliament, but found no hope for his pet scheme for two years, and when Chamberlain's scheme saw daylight and had been thoroughly discussed Pater- son was forced to issue a first edition of the Ernest Seyd addition, division and silence. Billy Paterson was born in Dumfrieshire in 1657. He left home and wandered to a little port called Bristol in in 1673, then carrying on a doubtful trade with the Ameri- can colonies. He was known to his low^ associates to be * Whose head (to make it a blockhead) the}^ chopped off on a block, the death warrant being signed by Clublaw Cockney Cromwell, perhaps, because a predecessor of Charles Saint Henry VIII. — who died a loathsome, unwieldy, helpless mass of corruption — had caused to be beheaded, some ninety years before, Thomas Cromwell, an ancestor of Oliver Cromwell's. — Montgomery's History of England. 199 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS possessed of an ungovernable, impetuous desire for those occupations which offer the most implicating and hazard- ous excitements, but of all his favorite pet was, among the many in which he showed undoubted aptitude and fondness for active commercial pursuits, the ocupation of a most common, illiterate sailor. All track or trace of him seems to be lost or buried in chartiable forgetfulness from 1673 until we find him of record in the province of Massachusetts Bay in 1682, plying, with avidity and apparent success, in the honor- able and honest pursuit of a piratical privateer. We mere- ly and incidentally mention the word, piratical, for he never was knov/n to enter the home harbor without some peculiar and overheavy cargo, even when England was at peace with all nations. He carried this business on, os- tensibly trading between Boston and the Bahamas, until things commenced to become so exceedingly warm for him as he neared the tropics that he retired from the sea for good, and registered, among the others, at that great centre for all classes who enter into doubtful, active com- mercial pursuits at London, 1687. Before proceeding further with his bank scheme, it might.be a good scheme to quote from his biography, written soon after his death in 1718. Also from another attempt by a monometallic and something-for-nothing ad- vocate, to reconcile his eminent fitness and Puritan faith, written as late as 1882, by a historian with an LL.D. to his name, but as we suppose that the second L is a mis- print and should be an A, so we will describe him as a LAD of the name of Kimball. They say, "No doubt his enterprises, until he settled in London, would be consid- ered by every one with honest intentions as of being, in- deed, of an illegitimate and doubtful character, the sys- tem of, or occupation of, privateering" (but a very slight shade removed from, and, alas ! very often ending in, as heartless and cruelly dreadful consequences as the in- human, cold murder incidents of pure piracy) ; "but, nevertheless, the occupation he followed never for once was known to interfere with his strict and righteous, reli- gious principles, and (oh, Maria!) history, tradition and gossip fail to find the slightest doubt, by anyone of his 200 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS sincerity, when he did, as all other pious men did and do, conduct and lead in prayer meetings, and regularly preach like all other chosen of God (particularly on the eve of an expected Lay-to), in proof of which choice may be cited (his jumping the broomstick) his marriage to the (grass) widow of a Puritan minister. He spent several years of his most useful life in London in the promotion of the most important and successful schemes, which alone made it possible for England to grab the greatest share of the commerce of the world; the influence and teachings of which schemes will be the sole support of England in the retention of her greatness." Now, to the individual who would prefer the proposed method of Chamberlain the crank to that of our emi- nently esteemed and superbly qualified hero of the seas, we will have nothing more harsh to say than this: We fear he will never have his hopes or aspirations realized while he keeps on voting for the prestige of the politi- cian, and the party that are both committed to follow in Paterson's wake. We would say vote only for the per- petuation of American principles and American institu- tions, or you will soon find yourself not only deprived of a home, like the despoiled victim of the privateer, but despoiled before long of the power of transmitting to your offspring that dear-bought, heavenly prize which in recent years you seemed to appreciate so little — the right to vote ! Paterson appeared in 1687 in London and at European courts for the purpose of bringing another scheme to the attention of any government that he might succeed in impishly hypnotizing. His scheme then was no less than the taking of the Isthmus of Panama or Darien (there was nothing small or beggarly about his schemes). For this proposed enterprise he created the euphonious, hair-raising, stage-staggering, significant name of the Keys of the Indies and Doors of the World. He solicit- ed every government in their turn without meeting with success for his majestic enterprise; but in his peregrina- tions he formed acquaintances that afterwards were to be instrumental with him in propagating and extending that inveterate, blighting curse on all thrifty, industrious, 201 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS frugal society, for which curse they had long since, through the basely cunning brain of innate rogues, se- lected the eclectic euphonism of Lord-Interest-Bank. His new found acquaintances had numbered among them no less personages than, from a homogeneous socialistic standpoint, the seething, sulphurous scoundrels, such as the bankers of Geona and Amsterdam. Disappointed at the failure of his world portal scheme, but not disheartened, he kept fairly quiet until 1691, when knowing that the government, through French and other wars, were fairly bankrupt, and then through his illiter- ate but cunning, avariciously fertile brain, dashed the idea that would make him unjustly rich during life and enviably notorious after death, he at once entered into communication with European banking acquaintances, from whom he received all his instructions and encour- agement. He told them that the government would onlv be too glad to give heretofore unheard-of, exclusive privileges to anyone, either a citizen of Hellespont or Hades, who could or would furnish a permanent loaning establish- ment, based on realty, passed debts, future credit, or on the dreamy hopes of the confirmed optimist, it mattered not, if such system would only provide for the mainte- nance of the horde of profligate, truckling idolators- in number necessary at court, that by their revelling in pu- trescent foam and pomp, would be sufficient to destroy or kill and desecrate all thoughts or ideas of social hon- est}^ and virtue ; thus by their propinquity, propagate and propagand the unhallowed satanic promptings of class distinctions, or holy flesh and earthly carcass. He made several trips to Amsterdam. He seemed to be laboring under great excitement, caused by the delay of sufficient loan for the privileges offered. But not so with the wealthy Jews ; they knew that their terms and dictation would finally have to be agreed to, as the great masses were strictly kept in ignorance of the functions and unreal value of money, as they were taught to look upon it as a sacred product, like manna, from heaven. For nearly two years he kept pressing his scheme, with- out the desired success. 202 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS About this time Chamberlain's scheme was brought before Parliament, which immediately recognized in it just what was wanted, and Paterson's scheme was con- demned and execrated by the masses, but not entirely discarded by Parliament. Now or never was the propi- tious time for Paterson, so his backers saw the faithless and needy members, loaned the government $6,000,000, at the low rate of 8 per cent, per annum, and after three years of untiring effort on the part of the professional money shavers the act was passed April, 1694, incorpo- rating the Governor and Co. of the Bank of England amid the universal denunciation of the whole English people, outside of Parliament. The Tories and Whigs of that day denounced it ; the landed proprietors proclaimed it treasonable ; the street Jews abjured it, and the Catholics detested it as a device of the devil himself, given in aid of the despised dese- crator King William. Parliament offered as its excuse that the king was without money, and then engaged in a fierce war in his native Europe; he must have money; the honor of the nation was at stake, and so a majority of basel}^ bounden slaves to baseless honor born voted yes. But now, more than ever, poor, pitiful Billy, the half-king and whole idiot, found himself in scalding, nay. seething, waters, at home as well as abroad. The people would not be appeased. Chamberlain's law must be adopted or the Stuarts w^ould be returned to the throne. The people hated the idea of yielding their most vital prerogatives to the evilly designed schemes of professionally and politically public, plundering pau- pers, or money peddlers, as they termed them, in their unceasing denunciation of centre-rift, fine-haired, bauble- bubbling bankers. The storm of indignation and national passion was so raging and universal that the new bank, as well as the government, feared for their own safety. We will here quote from toadying historians, who know nothing, if not to write in favor of money, hallowed flesh and autocracy. One idolized but falsifying his- torian, that escarping cryophorous of equality and equity, McCauley, says: "The country members of Parliament were delighted at the prospect of being once more en- 203 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS abled to repair their broken-down fences, replenish their larders and give portions, as of old, to their daughters (of course, three most heinously treasonable reasons), and altogether fully wished well to the scheme (Cham- berlain's). But they wished well to it, because they wanted to borrow money on easy terms (of course, a most contemptible idea), and wanting to borrow, of course, they were not able to lend it (the sole reason why Chamberlain's monetary measure was not successful, which fully exposes the fallacy and fraudulent intent of such oily, falsifying, financial writers and the economic ruse that they endeavor to defend or uphold, in which they so pityingly and ignominiously fail). "The moneyed class alone could supply the money that was necessary to the existence of the land bank (which plainly shows McCauley's ignorance of, or concerted intention to hide or deny, the only value of money, its legal tender qualities created by the law), and as the land bank was avowedly intended to diminish the profits, to destroy the political influence and to lower the social position (as if a more social, degrading depth could exist, even in the imagination of all honest men) of the moneyed class. As the moneyed class or usurers did not wish, to take upon themselves the expense of putting down usury, the whole plan failed." The foregoing are all the sublime- ly clownish reasons and paralyzing excuses for the existence of that monstrous, social leech, the Bank of England. This is what that amorphous, apterous apostle of divine right, or sacred, boiling blood, or immaculate bone and flesh, and of double-doleful dividends, Thorald Rogers, says : "The fact is the landed men hated the moneyed men with a bitterness in which envy, contempt, pride and religious bigotry were the strongest ingredients. (A most puerile, senile attempt to criticise the righteousness of the land bank measure.) They looked on their grow- ing wealth (without effort) with envy, on their occupa- tion with scorn (as it justly deserved), on their birth with disdain (but still in keeping with the divine right theory that he adores), on their creed and discipline with intolerant hate." His last excuse for the existence of the Bank of England is a plain, sacreligious plea to the 204 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS baser, baseless passions of man, aroused at any repeti- tion of the indoctrinated bigotr}^ of each seperate human religious sect, singing the rant of universal love, and playing the roles of adynamic buffoon in the farcical mimcry and ludicrously libellous teachings of the char- ity of a Jesus. Here we can see through the pen of two of the great- est admirers of the triune of usury, rent and monarchy, what opposition the Paterson scheme met with by all classes, so impoverished were they by that wrecking bane of usury and the scorching lack of a government legal tender currency, backed by the wealth and man- hood of the island, who from lack of such currency were rendered desperate, but particularly so at the heinous idea of government giving to corporations or individuals the prerogatives of government only, to issue money, when backed by the wealth of the nation, and dictated by the clamorously expressed will and wishes of the great masses, and this opposition, waged with unabating, relentless fury, was still encountered long after the Bank of England was launched on the sea of their destiny, the craft being universally known as the unmerciful pirate packet and named the Annihilator of Equity and Equal- ity, to which finally they were compelled to succumb, after vainly battling against the purchased power of the usurer, who was now ensconced in that office, which his descendants have ever since filled ; side partner to either pants or petticoat Hermaphrodite. The king, now finding his government in desperate straits, interviewed the governor of the Bank and Pat- erson, who was one of its directors. The haggard and despairing countenance of the king, at this first inter- view, plainly and visibly exposed, far better than he could express it, the mental worry and mortal anxiety that he was an almost devoured prey to, from the idea of what to him now seemed certain, not only losing his job, but also of having to lay his head on the chopping-block. At this meeting we are told that the king, having hastily announced the purport and intent of the meeting, bewil- deringly exclaimed, 'T am not only afraid that this scheme will not operate to the benefit of the nation, as I have been 205 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS \ \ pursuaded and cajoled into believing it would; but I fear i, that I will not only lose the crown, but as well all on r earth a man has to lose, if the incensed, betrayed people \ cannot be appeased. 1 Paterson, having rehearsed the Arabian Knights' bene- j fits that would accrue to all from his now enacted scheme, wound up by saying: Your most gracious majesty need entertain no fears, arising from the anger of the populace, but you may place implicit reliance in our ability to have the people appeased, and become, in short, as docile I as lambs. The king, now beside himself with rage (at what he now considered the most contemptible insult of an adventurer of the blackest record) thundered out: Cur, I command 3^ou to explain. Trifle not with me. By h -! I am king yet! Paterson, quite unruffled by the little episode, with the air of one only owning the total land and water of the earth, and a quit claim deed to the moon, now slowly and impressively unbosomed himself of the next chapter in his soothing, taming, wildcat scheme, which ended with, or thus : Allow a bill to pass enabling Chamberlain to incorpo- rate a land bank, on conditions that he will loan the government, say, $15,000,000 at 7 or 8 per cent.; we will give you $30,000 to subscribe to the stock when the bill is passed, and that will set you right with the people, who cannot see our little game, and you yourself need never want for an accommodation; as for the rest, it is just as easy as falling oflf a newly barked log on a frosty morning; to be brief, their scheme will fail, for we will see to it that they cannot borrow the money. Before the word money had escaped the lips of Paterson, we are told that the king, in an ecstasy of joy at the brilliant hope for the success of the scheme held out to him and also for his own individual security, fell on the neck of Paterson, the pirate, and, between his sobs, loudly and brokenly exclaimed : O, thou saviour of kings ! Now let us see if the foregoing is borne out by the felicitous, historical accounts that receive the highest laudation and widest dissemination by money-loaning lice generally, and all the fervid, fatuous fools who follow the fishy fiction of those feculent, felonious falsifiers, 206 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS whose oily finish of fecund frauds fascinate or fill with fainting fear their brains, as the snake, the bird, and fends them off from ferreting out the fixed, financial ferites of history, such as those given by Rogers and McCauley, whose accounts we will strictly adhere to. Chamberlain, urged by the people, and now an intima- tion from the government, that it thought favorably of and felt friendly towards the measure, and that the king himself would do all in his power to advance it, and had promised to be the first subscriber. At this news the people's joy and rejoicings were boundless, bonfires were lighted all over, and a special, popular jubilee generally indulged in. Chamberlain, from the opposition he had encountered from Paterson and his few followers, mostly M.'s of P., had learned that the one objection of any consequence to his measure was that he wanted, as the old bill provided for, two or three times more money issued against the land than the land could be sold for in a favorable mar- ket; so he drew up or drafted a bill asking only the full value of the land. The government now wanted the loan for the payment of the first half, but a few months* time was allowed, of $15,000,000 at 7 per cent., or two and one-half times as much as the Bank of England had to loan. Of course, Chamberlain never suspected that he would have to encounter the slightest difficulty in obtaining the money for such a magnificent, beneficial concern, so he was only too glad to accept the offer, and a bill complying with these terms was introduced, and, after a pretended opposition by the friends of Paterson, the bill passed in the early summer of 1696. The passage of the bill was haled with such rejoicings that they were onl}^ equalled in adverse magnitude or extent by the denunciations that the announcement of the charter of the Bank of England received. But, poor, deluded fools they were reckoning without their host, for their joy was well balanced by the chuckle of Paterson at the idea of how well the scheme was working. By the terms of the bill there was given until August i to subscribe $6,410,000, which if paid into the Exchequer by 207 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that date, it would constitute the subscribers a corporate body, under the title of the National Land Bank. Also, the bill provided that no money was to be loaned on any private or public security, except land, at a rate of three and one-half per cent., if paid quarterly, and at 4 per cent, if paid semi-annually, and that at least one-half million must be so loaned every year; everything ready, the word. Go, given, the king signed the warrant appoint- ing officers to receive the names and subscriptions of sub- scribers who were to form the new corporation. As to the part the king played in the scheme, we must admit in extenuation of the same that he was something like our own ruler of to-day — the poor man did not have sense enough to come in out of the wet! But when it rained hardest tried to shoot soft-shelled, ducks and geese with an empty demijohn. His enormous commodity, of the marketable sense he possessed, you may well judge by the following: Indeed, he was as good as his word and subscribed £5,000 towards the scheme, but, mark you, next day he leaves his people a prey to the ravages of that moneyed octopus, the Bank of England, and to that ruin and destitution known only to a people that are completely bankrupt and whose king takes the only £1,000,000 (the million loaned by the Bank of England) in the bankrupt nation's treasury to carry on a war in a foreign country, as unrighteous and senseless as it was ruthless and ruinous to all, simply because that foreign country was his native land, the Netherland campaign. But, however, the first of August came at last, but it was not the day for rejoicings for Chamberlain and his people, for it found in the treasury list of subscriptions only the amount of £7,100, including the king's £5,000. The fact was that, outside of money loaners, who would lose more than three-fourths of their unearned profits if the land bank succeeded, the people did not have the money to subscribe. But the people were almost frantic, and openly accused Paterson and his friends to be secret- ly working some infernal scheme to ward off subscrip- tions, and clamorously demanded for an extension of time, and a reduction of the loan; the more intelligent demanded the incorporation of the land bank without anv 208 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS loan whatever, saying if the present government thought that the lands of England were not a better representa- tive security, or basis for money, than gold and silver, that they could find a government and king that thought their lands better than usurers and gold, meaning the Stuarts. The again-thoroughly-frightened king sought the ad- vice and counsel of his seer, Paterson. Of course, he advised an extension of time, and a reduction of the loan to less than one-third ; so it was agreed that, if they would advance £400,000, or $2,000,000, that the bank would be incorporated at the next session of Parliament. It is almost needless to state that the one-tenth of that sum could not be raised by all the friends of the measure, although they numbered over 99 per cent, of the entire population, and consequently the scheme, as Paterson well knew and had predicted, ignominiously failed and collapsed. But the people vowed vengeance on the Bank of Eng- land, should ever an opportunity offer. So they started in worse than ever at clipping coins, thus forcing the government to call them in for recoinage, which in those days was necessarily slow ; now the little circulation, thus further decreased, left money still scarcer, and the people, whenever they could, collected the notes of the bank, to make a run on it at a favorable time for their purpose, which run they did make. But Paterson was too shrewd for them. Having now by act of Parliament been firmly estab- lished, the measure of the malcontents frustrated and the government in his debt, public!}^ and with the con- sent of Parliament, he at once claimed full protection from the plotters, as he dubbed the Chamberlain masses, which were now by this time strengthened by small indi- vidual loaners, because they were chagrined by Pater- son's reduction of the then rate of interest, an average of 30 per cent., while he wanted the land bank to loan at 3!/^ to 4 per cent., because he knew he had the golden goose that idiotic Billy was shooting intoxicating afflatus at and knew how to preserve her. The government was now forced to protect its business 209 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS partner — for Paterson, the Pirate, and Billy, the Satyr, were in cahoots — and when a run was made on the bank payment was stopped for notes in the possession of the plotters, but notes coming in in the regular order of business — that was, in bank agents' hands — were cashed. The stock went down from no to 80, but when a consid- erable amount of the new coin was coined notice was given that 15 per cent, of the plotters' notes would be paid, endorsed so on the back, and the note returned until all was paid thus. Somewhat similar schemes as those followed by our national banks during this and last year's money panics.. From this on Paterson knew that if his bank collapsed so would the reigning government itself, so intertwined is the government with the bank that the collapse of one entails the collapse of the other, so that virtually to-day Rothschild & Co. are the Govern- ment of England. The equal-right-minded people of England always were and are to this day enemies of the institution, ever heap- ing abuse and vituperation on all connected with it. Two notable instances of their hostility to it may be cited — one during the reign of George 11. , when the bank issued a coin known as the five-shilling dollar, which had on one side, Geo. III., Dei Gratia Rex (by the Grace of God — King, with a big K and a little g). On the other side, "5 shilling dollar, Bank of England." Such was the feel- ing of hatred aroused in the public mind by this appear- ingly frivolous fact, against the bank, that the coinage had to be immediately discontinued. The other occasion for an exposition of the public feel- ing on money matters and against the bank was the stamping by the bank on the Spanish-milled dollar — the same dollar that at one time was made full legal tender by our own government — the impression of 5s. and 6d. dollar, and on the head of the King of Spain a smaller head of George III. This action was resented with such fury by the people that most of the newspapers published such satirical squibs as this : The bank, to make their Spanish dollar current pass, stamped the head of a fool on the head of an ass. During Pitt's connection with the government, for 2T0 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS several years, he held the bank in disfavor. When he asked for an enormous loan for those days the bank would sometimes appeal for a reduction of the amount; his invariable reply was a demand for an additional loan, accompanied with the burning intimation that if it was not immediately forthcoming that he knew a way of getting plenty of money, which would not be based upon fictitious metallic value or insane debts, but on the lands and patriotism of the Briton. The bank officials feared and hated him so that they would sooner see his satanic majesty himself than old Billy Pitt, as the boys dubbed him in those telling times of tyranny. Each one of them, according to the position of responsibility he held in the bank, felt, as it were, an electric shock or thrill of tensive termagancy take hold of his tidily togged thermal tenement at the sound of the fall of his well-known foot- steps, and breathed a deeply profound, thankful sigh of relief as the terrible incubus and its cause made their one exit in the person of the real king of the trio of Billies, or Gravel-Pitt-Billy. Things lasted thus until long after our War of Inde- pendence, from British, egoistic tyranny, which changed the policy of the island regarding future moves. Here was Napoleon, who must be downed, and, finding the bank long past the mark where bankruptcy enters, Pitt was forced to use the bank as an institution to carry out in part his idea or theory of paper money. So, in February, 1797, there was held a secret meeting of what is known by the very appropriate, sweet-scented name of the Privy Council (a sort of Cabinet meeting), which resulted in an order to the Governor and Corporation of the Bank of England to stop at once the payment of coin in the liquidation of any indebtedness against the bank whatever, until the sense of Parliament could be analyzed and the infinitestimally miniature button determined. It took twenty-four years to find the lost, strayed or stolen sense of Parliament, as nominal specie payments were not resumed until 1821. (All nations have to fall back on paper money in times of direful pressure or distress, or to perform colossal, progressive achievements. Wonder will suckers ever make good trout!) Here 211 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS was one-quarter of a century that paper money was abso- lute legal tender, just like her paper of to-day, but not exchangeable for gold, because they had little or none in England, and the only legal tender to be paid out by the bank until the scooted, slinked sense could be scented by its smell and traced thus to its secret lair and arrested. You may ask the question. Did their black and white, pepper and salt, or graybacks depreciate, as did our forty-cent greenback? I must answer you as loud as I possibly can yell, in order that you may not forget it \ before you go to the next political convention, NO ! Why | so? Just let me whisper it to you in secret (keep | still now: Because they were absolute legal tender, with i no exception clause on the whitish back; but please do j not let the rabble know anything about it). j Pitt knew how to put the screws on the Shylocks with ' lightning twist. They did not try to purchase legisla- j tion neither did they threaten for an exception clause i from him ; it would have availed them nothing if the}^ did, | because Pitt was a true, patriotic Englishman. We only hope that we will find similarly as. true and patriotic, but Americans, in the next Congress we send to Washington, for all hands and the cook, together with the colored coachman, are heartily tired of the scoundrelly perfidious or shamefully ignorant majorities we have been sending there for the past thirty years or more. The bank affairs ran along swimmingly under the paper money order, without any disturbance in the finan- cial affairs of the nation, as there was no limit to the amount of notes the bank might issue. But the people all the time studiously agitated their right to issue paper money on their lands, etc., in preference of, or to, the un- righteous national debt, and the notes based on it fraudu- lently issued by a corporate vampire. By this time Billy Pitt is succeeded by one Bobby Peel, who might be said to belong to the Chesterfieldian school, in that he be- lieved in order to be an ideal statesman it was absolutely necessary to be an adept in the art of dissembling. He saw that Republican ideas were growing apace and spreading like the Russian thistle, and that the general or popular opposition to the Bank of England was one 212 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of them, so something must be done to arrest popular clamor. Then, in 1819, Peel brought a bill into Parlia- ment, providing for the resumption of specie payments, deceivingly holding that a bank should pay coin for its notes on demand. Let us see how and when the bank pays cash on de- mand for its own notes. The bill, of course, passed with a whoop, and the bank prepared to resume in two years afterwards, 1821. It was given out carefully that the bank had over $100,000,000 in gold and silver (although silver was demonetized, but not for the bank, as we will show further on). The enemies of the bank thought that this amount was too big for their pile, so they con- cluded to wait until the bank's coin capital (there is no reserve law, so that the bank is the great Mogul of the nation's finance in every respect), through course of business would come down within their reach, so the resumption passed off quietly, yet there was no restriction to its issue of notes, whenever it deemed it necessary to issue them for its own purposes. Things went thus along smoothly for the bank, as no opportunity offered itself to its numerous enemies until 1825, when they made a concerted move to burst the bank. Never suspecting at the time that if they had fully succeeded that they would have made their nation an easy prey for any power that desired to avail them- selves of such an opportunity; but all their enmity was directed against the bank. They had about succeeded in bursting the bank with a dynamitic report of a cun- ningly created balloon, when an order in council, or a let- ter of lice-nse, was given and posted in the window (oh, what omnipotent work of man!), and the old notes that were stowed away for such an emergency were forthwith issued in payment of all debts, without giving them time to blow the foul smell of the Privy Council off them. It was a loud-crying shame ! Fie ! Pugh ! Fetid, extrinsic paper money! Peel, now becoming angered at the people, championed the cause of the bank, and henceforth the letter of lice- nse was boss of the business. But so untiring and stren- uous was the opposition continued by the people that 213 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Peel was driven to his wits' end to find a silken, slippery, | slimy solution for the problem. At last, by years of sleep- \ less study, he found one that would put the scales on their eyes completely that a locomotive could not drag or Billy Peel them off. That was the bank act of 1844; but had we been born then another tale would have to be told, for the bill would never have passed. Oh, my dead pony for a seat in Parliament ! Virtually the act under which the bank carries on its nefarious business to-day. The bill allowed the bank to issue black or white backs, but no green, because Ireland laid towards the setting sun, too fully adorned by the emblem of grief already, and such a fresh insult might explode the cap that primes that eternal bomb that will one day shatter that isle of tin to fragments that will fly to join the spirit of Pater- son, the pirate, on the turbulent, chopping seas of despoil- ing, damnific interest. The notes to be of no less denomi- nation than $25, which was afterwards altered to allow $5 notes to the amount of $75,000,000 of debt, that the government then owed them, and to issue notes, dollar for dollar, for all the gold and silver they might own — one-fourth silver only to be allowed of the entire bullion. (Still silver was demonetized to foreigners.) N. B. — And whenever the bank issued notes in excess the gov- ernment was to get the benefit of it; and, besides, the order in the council, or letter of license, was to prevail. How is that for a gold basis, or, how is it for a paper summit, or, how is it vice versa? Now you see and now you don't! Oh, come off the perch! Say, partner, strange, isn't it? So that whenever the coin of the Bank of England gives out they can issue notes indefinitely, and their note is an absolute legal tender within the little dominion of the British Islands. But our apodal, anglomaniacal, gold standard advocates, who literally have not a foot to stand on, nor a solid basis to place it on if they had, will tell you, with a blending of blandlike, childish innocence and ignorance, that what makes a Bank of England note as good as gold is because you can get the gold for it on demand; but suppose you do not demand the gold, like 214 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS nine-tenths of the English people, is it not a full legal tender, gold or no gold? Again, its exchange for gold is optional with the bank, for whenever the bank feels so disposed it will exchange gold or silver for its owm notes, and whenever it wants to suspend it does so at its own discretion. But when the gold and silver of their own capital become exhausted what puts the intrinsic value in the notes issued on the government debt, and reissue of their own coin notes, and in what they can issue in excess of which the gov- ernment may get credit for, or part of the interest? It must certainh'^ arise from the peculiarity of the ink, or perhaps the paper, for ours is green and theirs is corpse- like white ; that is sufficient to scare the doubts out of anyone, even a patriotic American greenbacker. Or, rather, is it not that order of the Privy Council, which has not even the doubtful shadow of law about it, simply the mandate of a few men, who meet in secret, as their title, privy, implies ; who in effect, parrot-like, repeats or says : Behold ! We are the god, with a small g and very loud wh. o. a. ; who now endow bank paper with indestructible intrinsic qualities, until such times as in our infallible judgment we may deem it to the further- ance of our glory and personal profit, to command, nay, will it otherwise ; when, lo ! our people shall feel, know and believe as before. And why should it not be so? For, to all intents and purposes, except to the artist mocking the works of na- ture, the piece of paper has about as much real, intrinsic value as the piece of gold, and has identically the same virtue when the law creates it, a stipulated debt liquidat- ing factor; that is, it is the mute agent, silently expressive by what is stamped thereon of the mandate of society, which alone gives the coin over the 999 parts of its com- mercial value, or monetary price, or debt paying quality, or value, which is but at best a creation of the imagina- tion and but a wild guess, expressive of the will of soci- ety, through the instrumentality of recorded law. This act of Peel's was the thirteenth extension and modification of its charter, and the second one which exempted it from all taxation whatever, which feature 215 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS makes it sparkle in the eyes of our anglomaniacs. Each extension granted fresh privileges to the bank, and more slavery to the people, and disgrace to unadulterated en- lightenment and equity. Each extension was for a given number of years, with the mocking proviso that if the government gave twelve months' notice and paid up its full debt, then the charter was thereby revoked. Oh, what a song and dance, or silly, puny, gassy farago! But, however repeatedly the people wanted this last pro- vision to be complied with, and always stands ready to pay off to the best of their ability, their national debt, but such is not the policy of the bank, and consequently cannot be of a toadying government. As no financial measure, or any other of importance, can pass through Parliament without the approval of the bank, thus so far the people might as well shovel chaff against a Kansas cyclone as to try to pay debts without the bank's consent. There is no enterprise of any import- ance entered into, or can be, by the government without first consulting the governor of the bank, and should it not receive his approval it is laid away to mold among the musty archives of the dead past. The bank is the deposi- tory of the nation's money, and it pays the interest on the government's bonds, called consols, from consoli- dated debt ; in any stringency it will loan money on those bonds, as they are somewhat similar to the debt that first gave the bank existence, but it charges whatever interest for the loan it may choose to, as there is no strings on it. During the panics of 1847-57-66 the bank would have gone down to Davy Jones's locker, possibly to consult some of the stubborn spirits that had resisted the priva- teer of Auld Lang Syne, had it not been that the sense of Parliament, once playing hide and seek, deserted, or on an awful tare, had been found in company with the wan- dering Jew, and on getting an injection of strychnine was sobered up, and ever since kept securely confined in the Privy Council's closet, except in times of popular distrust, when it is taken from the closet and brought forth, by its rank smell to establish sense and confidence 216 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS in the weak and doubtful. It has received the very appro- priate title of the letter of lice-nse. It is a document that is calculated to strike terror to the heart of the golden calf, the silver elephant, the nickel statue, the copper horse, or the brassy banker, for when it comes forth, no matter what the trouble is or what desti- tution stalks abroad, or who is queen, king, all immedi- ately and sedately retire, for now his most august majes- ty Paper Money rules the roost, and when chewing snuif uses the crown through mistake for a cuspidor. Strange, isn't it, this intrinsic paper money dream? Since about 1750 it is an undeniable fact that the be- lief was prevalent amongst all classes not connected with the bank that the forgery of notes of the bank was in no sense criminal ; that every Englishman was the peer at least of Paterson and his successors, and that if they had the right to print money, because he loaned money to the government, in time of war at 8 per cent, interest, that they who willingly gave money in paying taxes, in war and peace, and asked no return, but simply the com- mon right to life and property, had a far better right to print money, especially if the bank should lose thereby, as it had been robbing them long enough, getting inter- est on the debt and interest from them, besides for the money that the government alone should issue and regu- late. We find people of all ranks among the list of forgers ; the first of note comes a wealthy, respectable dry goods merchant, named Vaughan, of Stafford; then a stock broker and brewer, who got away with $1,000,000 of forged bank notes; then comes a banker, about 1825, who got away with over $2,000,000, who acknowledged that he did so because that the bank was not only an enemy to him, but to the whole nation as well; and so on through an almost innumerable list. For over one hun- dred years the annual loss to the bank by this forging re- prisal was estimated by the bank at $200,000 a year. It may be asked. Was this simply the doings of the natural thief? It seems not, for still it kept on, notwithstanding that the bank strenuously and determinately used its in- human, fiendish, drastic powers, without sparing trouble, 217 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS expense or life, to check it from the start, as we will presently see. Now for the next page or two of humane English financial history! Brace up your nerves, and grit your teeth — no faint-hearted, fair ladies wanted! A law passed, inflicting capital punishment, was strict- ly enforced— so strictly that even a poor clerk in the bank, having forged a note for such an insignificant amount that their historians were ashamed to give us the miserable number — was hung, like a cold-blooded mur- derer, which drove his sister crazy, who might be seen for years, always faultlessly dressed in white, call every day at that accursed institution to inquire if her brother had yet returned, ever to receive the fiendishly freezing answer. No. Yes, in this nineteenth century. Ah, what inconsistency! What a glorious, gold standard country! What institutions sustained by such sacrifice for us to imitate! Pugh ! Out on such inhuman- brutes ! Is this the system you would set up in the land of a Jackson and a Jefferson? Do you remember the bewitchingly appro- priate name the latter had for the banker, the hell- hounds? But why select one case, for the number in one year alone in the first quarter of our present century reached the astonishing figures of 352 convictions; and all were ? No, not all, for some were so dastardly mean as to cheat the hangman, not out of his fee, but out of his fun, by committing suicide. But English etiquette, conventionalities, amenities and sense of decenc)^ and fastidious propriety was not to be baffled or outdone, but they added another laurel to their glorious civilization by hanging the corpse for spite!* Just imagine a multi- millionaire New York banker hung for forging the notes of another bank, and then you can faintly picture, with some lucidity, the peculiar, typical English idea of char- * But we charitably acknowledge that that was an improvement on the methods of Henry VIII., who had caused^ the bones of Becket — supposed to be a saint — who had been buried for nearly 400 years, to be summoned, the bones were tried in court for treason, etc. Court was held in Westminster Abbey; the bones were found guilty and sentenced to pay Henry VIII., King, whatever jewelry was in the tomb, and then to be burned. — Montgomery's History of England. 218 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ity, money and honesty, with weeping justice nursing in- sane ladies, for a background! And those are the ideas that both political parties wish to import to the land of a Washington, a Jefferson, and a Lincoln ! Fie on such traitors ! We have previously mentioned that banks of issue had the ceremony of their blatant, blandishing, blustering, blasphemous baptism performed by the ablutions of the madding waves of human blood. Well, was this not so with the bank of Venice ? Was the Bank of England not chartered on account of the loan of £1,000,000, in order that that blood money would carry on the war in the Netherlands, a country removed by the sea? And did not its directors, shareholders and friends at every anniver- sary of its incorporation for over 150 years, instead of its celebrators joining in a germiade, did they not jabber with joy in their jaunty, jovial jubilee at the jingling news of the jugular job of the jocular hangman, judi- ciously sacrificing human beings on the altar of legalized robbery, thus offered up to perpetuate the social-slaugh- ter-house institution, and to still further polish its satanic coronal ? Was it not that unfortunate, unpatriotic, dishonest debt that was contracted then, and bonds issued for the same, which was baptized in the rivers of blood, spilled by brother slaying brother, and father murdering son, that now, 1894, forms the basis of our damnific national bank system ? Oh, Jehovah, the Most High ! We be- seech you, deliver the race from the blind fury, the fiery web of desolation,, the network of annihilation, of Satan ! This subject too keenly rends the heart of the true Ameri- can, so the least said concerning it the better. Pay off the debt and wipe out the last existing national witness of our misfortune on which the bankers live and loll in lecherous luxury. Such is the system and such are the people from whom we borrowed it, the English, whose methods and laws that we hear our scrubby political surf or the driftwood of all progressive, social streams prating and bellowing about so much, like a hungry parrot, and so sedulously advising, their followers to imitate and adopt, as though 219 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS we did not have too much of them already. Or can you read history? Or do you want to emigrate? If so, get up and git! But it may be said that, beyond our copying in part and of advising that their methods be adopted, that our national banks have no fellow connection with the Bank of England and all the other banks of England conduct- ed under its dictation, for none can long exist without its consent, as its action towards a certain kind of inde- pendent banks known then as the limited liability, dur- ing the London bank panic of 1866 (the principally ac- cused cause of which panic our bloody, bleeding greenback was accused, and loudly and roundly denounced and deep- ly plotted against, for through the aid of the greenback such was our extraordinary recuperation and resumption of prosperity that it detracted attention and investments from such English financial enterprises as purchasing stocks in and advancing large sums of money towards Russian, Italian and Belgium building and railroad wild- snake schemes), fully demonstrated as those limited banks, on their asking for loans from the Bank of Eng- land, were answered by the laconic phrase of. Not a farthing. But those banks existing by the grace of the great, tin-isle rajah were pulled through the hole by the nape of the neck, and the hole pulled in after them, through the instrumentality of that omnific ukase of his most gracious rnajesty, Monnaie de Papier le premier, letter of lice-nse. Let us now see if the financiers of the tin island have nothing in common with, or no peculiar interest in, our national banks, and if the latter do not follow to a dot, the advice of their far-oflf treacherous cousins and our nation's enemy. We will quote that famous thirty-two- year-old Hazzard circular, which was issued by the agent of London capitalists, to the New York capitalists (a special directory of which is duly kept and revised) in 1862. Read it and tremble for the fate of the nation. Should we ever be insane enough to leave its chances in the hands of our fine-haired, gold-mounted, rattle- snake, copper-headed bankers. "Slavery is likely to be abolished, by the war power, 220 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the ownership of labor, and carries with it the care for the laborer, while the European plan, led on by England, is for cap- ital to control labor by controlling wages. This can only he done by controlling the money. The great debt, that capital will see to it, is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control this great volume of money. To accomplish this the bonds must be used as a banking basis. We are now waiting for the Sec- retary of the Treasury to make the recommendation to Congress. (Oh! God of heaven.) It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that." This is sufficient to burst the blood vessels in the region of the heart of a true patriot. Such freezing calculations and speculations of our most bitter enemy. Inspired by the deep, dark, deathly, senior-devil himself. Comment on it for an American would not only be superfluous, but an insult to his intelligence, no matter how slight his education, for he can more accurately measure in the mind the enormity of its heinousness than all the ex- pressive powers given to mortal could approximately portray or depict. But they might have included the following in their circular, and undoubtedly would, had they loved alethi- ology and desired to be obligingly explicit, just simply to have it more complete. We have gone already to great expense, in urging on the South to war, for if we did not, we well know that your people could have ar- bitrated or amicably adjusted the slave question. We did so because we knew that if your government could not be placed deeply in debt, we could not play you for suckers, like we now can. And further, we pledge our honor to do more on our part ; we will aid the South all that we possibly can without recognizing their belligerent rights, until the debt is large enough, to suit our pur- pose, and dear brethren in finance, see to it that you do your part). Do you really think that such accusations or asser- tions as the foregoing are mere chimerical conclusions 221 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS arrived at by an overwrought or unhealthy imagination? If you do, just consult the history of this, your own generation, and if you are so absent minded or forgetful as not to remember it, there, you will find, where the English Government, in a court, held in a foreign country (Geneva), at which Caleb Gushing represented this coun- try in part, was publicly to her world-wide, everlasting disgrace, sentenced to pay a fine, or indemnity, to the United States Government, of $15,500,000 in gold, for aiding and abetting the South during the war of the rebellion. We hope you will not forget that again. Now, did they assist in creating that debt, and all others, on which they now live at their ease on the toil of Amer- icans? Again we say repeal the refunding act of 1870, fraudulently recorded by changing the word before for after, making the bonds payable only thirty years after, instead of any time previous to that date. Pay the debt and thus wipe off the slate, recording all the gigantic crimes of the world's history, the greatest, that con- tract, the United States national debt. That the bankers acted on the advice of the Hazzard circular, goes without saying. Of course, you know all about the exceptional clause on the back of the green- back, which was placed there by act of Congress Febru- ary 25, 1862, or just thirteen days after the second act authorizing their issue, and nine days after the New York, Philadelphia and Boston banker's convention, called at Washington for the purpose of purchasing per- fidious political poltroons, and of intimidating the gov- ernment by their threatening whining wail of treachery. Again by the purchased passage of the national bank act, passed in 1863, by which we pay from 4 to 7 per cent, interest on the bonds and an average of 12 per cent, more on its representative national bank notes, the repre- sentative of a debt, an intrinsic value money, the best the world ever sawed in two, not redeemable in gold, silver, copper, iron or arsenic, but in a worse and more deadly poison, that accursed debt, already purchased for the people, by disloyalty and dishonor, and continued by a cabal of craven cormorants, that they may consume, in confounding carousal, the creations of the over-con- 222 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS fiding, too-complacent masses, and coUudingly consume the chastity of their children, and consonantly, copiously consume that foaming, foreign froth of Beelzebub, cham- pagne. Oh ! God of Israel ! To where are our spirits of freedom vanishing? How ridiculous. To see people measuring their com- modities of absolutely necessary intrinsic value, by their debts, and the reindebtedness on that debt, by the bankers. Away with your banks and debts. Cancel both, have your government issue, even to the amount of one representative dollar, for every dollar's worth of your realty and patriotism, if so much is required, as it can injure no one who wants to live by honest in- dustry. Let us kill off the drones by either compelling them to labor, or by consuming themselves like all other cannibals. They barefacedly tell us that the loud, empty- sounding national bank notes are the best the world ever saw, but they forget to add that that little world is suf- fering from amaurosis and ophthalmia caused by their nocturnal dipsomaniac debauches of degenerating des- pumation, and are blinded by the light of truth and honesty. Their next robbing scheme came easier for them,. as did all others up to date, as since his removal, they did not have Lincoln to contend with, and as every one knows to-day, whether willing to confess it or not, that every one of our Presidents since, with the exception of the short, sad-ending career of Garfield, have been as mere puppets in the hands of foreign and native alien bankers. Was not the currency contraction act of 1866 in strict conformity to or with English dictation, as was our loud-mouthed bankers' slavish obedience to it? By which act the people's non-interest-bearing money was cremated on being changed for diabolical-chaining bonds, bearing interest at 5 per cent., on which a counterfeit, extrinsic paper money was issued at an average of 12 per cent, per annum (see national bank statistics of oyer 10 per cent, net profits). Was this the combined action and accomplishment of Satan and Shylock? Or is it but a horrible dream? Then came the funding act of 1870, following the credit 223 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS destroying act of 1869, legalizing the swapping of stamped pieces of metal for stamped pieces of paper, | for the purpose of robbing the producers out of hundreds ,j of millions, and increasing the purchasing power of the i- yellow-metal tokens of the bondsmen out of bondage, but busity forging more chains for the deluded, producing slave, who was told that the honor of the nation was at stake. Yes, such honor, and the stake, emits deadly, diabolical, fetid, sulphurous fumes which stifles patriot- ism and destroys noble principle so completely that we may any day see our princely parasites, with reasoning power so paralyzed, that they mope abroad, with their carcass adorned by what seems to be the material ele- ment of their brains, the metal gold, as if aping Moham- med in his magnetic casket, awing his disciples to further reverence, and whose aofish, affected swagger seems to contend that the fathers of the country were but trite, truckling dotards, and could never enter such a 400, l Lordly swim. Oh, shade of Paterson, the Pirate ! You are getting there with both feet and a cloven hoof. The funding act of '70, by law, which must soon be re- pealed, prevents the people from paying off their national debt. They have paid more than twice their whole debt already in interest, and about $750,000,000 cannot be paid until 1907. With our products at one-third the market price now, that such commodities brought when the debt was contracted, the debt is in reality more now, ij that is, it is harder to pay than it was at the close of the war, as the intrinsic value and cubic measures, or metric weight, remains the same ; while the actual meas- ure of the dollar, when applied to our merchantable com- modities, has increased at least threefold and still the American pope of the Shermanation army claims he can- not see it. Is it any wonder why that profound philos- opher Schopenhauer exclaims : ''The more I learn or see of man, the better I love dogs?" Then came the stealthy demonetization of silver in 1873, another of the stupendous robberies of the Amer- ican people, consummated by the miserable purchase and sale of $500,000, for a few paltry wretches, whose base souls and putrid carcasses are not worth the two by six 224 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of the earth's most filthy mire, required soon to stay their plaguing stench, from corrupting the nature of com- mon, manly man. And the student in the dissecting room fears it worse than the seven plagues of Israel combined. Then the commodity — monetization of silver by pur- chase of some $2,000,000 a month, not the one hundredth part of the money monthly devoured by interest. What financial baby mud-pies, even without the excuse of a sugared crust. Then the purchase by money, of money-metal, the storage of the metal, on the metal, the issuance of one-half commodity paper, and the other half composed of (to be charitable) complete financial igno- rance, either half exchanged for gold at the treasury win- dow, while the greenb?ck plays tag with the redemption fund away down in the cellar. Another staggering con- viction of the total lack of the financial knowledge per- vading the ranks of our puny, putrescent politicians. Or is it criminal, nameless, shameless dishonesty? Let us utter good for evil, or as you are the judge, evil for good, and say it is not avaricious dishonesty, but with Christian-like mercy and love, let us name it plexiform, iconographic insanity. We find that not only did the national banks suborn Legislators direct, but used the most outrageous methods to bring their constituents' influence to bear on them, the idea leading "to such methods could only have orig- inated in the mind of a citizen of a Church-ridden coun- try like England. Here is a sample of the national bank- ers' circulars : "Dear Sir — It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such daily and prominent weekly news- papers, especially the agricultural and religious press, as will oppose the issuing of greenback paper money, and that you withhold patronage or favors from all ap- plicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money. Let the government issue the coin, and the banks issue the paper money of the country, for then we can better protect each other. To repeal the law creating national banks, or to restore to circulation the Government issue of money, will be to provide the people with money, and will therefore seriously afifect your individual profits as banker and lender. See your 225 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS member of Congress at once, and engage him to support our interest, that we may control legislation. Signed by the Secretary, James Buel, 147 Broadway, Room 4, New York." The religious press, eh! Those placarding mockeries of the religion of Jesus. Those chief expounding post- ers of religion-made-easy ! The blatant exponents of div- ; inity-cut-and-made-to-measure, who lavishly guarantee a j' perfect fit ! Those chief agents and expositors of the 1' poor man's heaven and the rich man's hell, whose cun- ' ning, imposing, illustrations are to awe the poor man [ from rebelling at Church-sanctioned robbery! Can we here congratulate the banks on their perspicacious choice, in selecting such a felicitous ally, of his black majesty? Or are we to be convinced that the selection was but an ordinary compliance with an article of the covenant of the triple Alliance? Did we say the religious press? Ah! what a powerful ally. To assist Mammon in each tower- ' ing robbery of the masses. To assist those gamblers fired bodily from the temple. What a choice ally — in whose putrid brain the pure teachings of Christ are dressed in rancid robes and sacrilegously forced through polluting lips, with such an enervating, hissing sound as to mesmerize the most magnanimous, unsuspecting, for- giving people on the face of the earth, the American masses, and thus leave them an easy prey to the wiles of that member of the triple alliance — the usurer. Let us see or quote a few words from some of the patriots of the war days. Hon. Thaddeus Stevens said in regard to the exception clause on the greenback, that, "It is the first victory of the money power over the coun- j try.'^ Again he said, "We had to yield, we did not yield until we found that the country -must be lost, or the banks gratified." The Hon. Henry Wilson said, Febru- ary, '62, "It is a contest between the brokers, jobbers and money changers on the one side, and the people of the United States on the other. I venture to express the opinion that ninety-nine of every hundred of the loyal people of the United States are for this legal tender clause." (Not the exception clause.) Secretary of the Treasury Sal. P. Chase, who was then 226 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Secretary, when the scurriliously heinous, empty-sound- ing national bank act passed through Congress in 1863. On afterwards seeking for his grievous mistake, condol- ence with Lincoln, the latter consolingly repeated his oft-repeated remark: ''Well, we cannot fight two wars (meaning the banks and the South) at once." Secretary Chase lamentably answered : ''Qh, well, I know that, Abe. Oh, but how I shudder for the consequences ! When I remember my agency in procuring the passage of the national bank act it was the greatest financial mistake of my life. It has built tip a monopoly that affects every interest in the country. It should be repealed. But before this can be accomplished the people will be ar- rayed on one side and the banks on the other in a con- test such as we have never seen in this country." Let us quote a few of the words of that mountain of natural equity and equiponderant, culminating pinnacle of patriotic purity, Abraham Lincoln, who, shortly before the close of the war wrote : "Yes, we may all congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its close. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. The best blood of the flower of American youth has been freely offered upon our country's altar, that the nation mis-ht live. It has been indeed a trying hour for the Republic, but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble. for the safety of my country. As a result of the war corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will en- deavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prej- udices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." It was such discerning expressions really that built and decorated the stage for him, on which was played that eternal act of the Booth tragedy. Is the crisis coming? Shades of Chase and Lincoln, how close is it to hand? Sustain our courage to nobly do our part. God grant that some one may be left to chronicle the scene of deluded, mad- 227 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS dened, worldly waifs, warring with deluded, wily, wanton wretches, to annihilation. The great question of the future is money against legis- lation. My friends, you and I shall be in our graves long | before that battle is ended ; and, unless our children shall \ have more patience and courage than saved this country, republican institutions will go down before moneyed cor- porations. Rich men die, but banks are immortal and railroad corporations never have any diseases. Our fathers, when the}^ forbade entail and provided for the \ distribution of estates, thought they had erected a bar- | rier against the money power that ruled England. They-, forgot that money could combine; that a moneyed cor- . poration is a succession of persons with a unity of pur- j pose. Now, as the land of England in the hands of , 30,000 land-owning families has ruled it for six hundred ! years, so the corporations of America mean to govern ; I and, unless some power more radical than ordinary pol- j itics is found, will govern inevitably. The survival of j republican institutions here depends upon a successful resistance of this tendency. The only hope of any suc- cessful grapple with this danger lies in rousing the masses, whose interests lie permanently in the opposite direction." — Wendell Phillips. Then came the suspension of silver purchase (what fumbling, floundering of feculent financial fools), an(t of course the closing of the mints to its coinage. Still gold exchanged for silver-bills-of-lading, or silver-deposit- receipts or certificates. Then, oh, then, the Bonds ! Those diabolical links that chain us to the sale of birthright for pottage ! Ay, swill. We will not surcharge or overload the patient patriot, lest we should incite his over-taxed brain to a precipitant, but righteous revenge, by recalling to memory any more of the thousands of glaring incidents of the criminal career of the money power or national banks, by them committed against the weal and welfare of our nation, since their illegal creation; which are well known, but slumber deep in the minds of the noble good and true, on whose patience we will now, most humbly trespass, by imploring them not to defile the memory of the PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS fathers of their country by ever again voting, on any pretext v^hatsoever, for any candidate for the national congress, v^ho is in any way connected v^ith any national , or other bank. Having presumed that the honest and honorable American had forgotten, that such voting was virtually in direct opposition to the law, we thereby hope for pardon for having asked for such a presumptive favor by reminding you of the Resolution passed in the 3d Session of Congress, which went through the United . States Senate on December 23d, 1793, which was signed by President George Washington which is as follows: "Any person holding any office or any stock in any institution in the nature of a bank, for issuing or dis- counting bills or notes payable to bearer or order, cannot be a member of the House while he holds such office or stock." Comment is wholly uncalled for. With the bright hope of creating, in the bosom of all true Americans, an admiration and reverence, cered by a spirit of forgiveness for that giant, pantamorphic, ophid- ian institution, the National Banker's Assn., we will give publicity to one of its latest messages of divine mercy, but now by them denied, without specific proof, and heavenly justice, and love to the suffering American people: "Dated March 12, 1893. To all National Banks. Dear Sir — The interests of the National Bankers require immediate financial legislation by Congress. Silver, sil- ver certificates and treasury notes must be retired and the national bank notes, upon a gold basis, made the only money. This will require the authorization of from $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 of new bonds as a basis of circulation. You will at once retire one-third of your circulation, and call in one-half of your loans. Be care- ful to make a money stringency felt among your patrons, especially among influential business men. Advocate an extra session of Congress for the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman law and act with the other banks of your city in securing a large petition to Congress for its unconditional . repeal. Use personal influence with Congressmen and particularly let your wishes be known to your Senators. The future life of national banks, as fixed and safe investments, depends upon immediate ac- 229 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tion, as there is an increasing sentiment in favor of government legal-tender notes, and silver coinage." Great Caesar! Talk about the patience and forbearance of the common mortal ; why Job, himself, w^ould not have even the shadow^ of a shov^ v^ith the American of to- day. (As we find this part of the subject exasperating to our nerves we deem it prudent to soon proceed to other parts or principles of economy and would therefore re- spectfully refer the reader who desires to post up on financial crime since 1861, to that pert, precise, clear, concise and clever exposition of legislative crime, the little book called the ''Seven Financial Conspiracies," by Mrs. S. E. V. Emery, Lansing, Michigan. Every true American should have at least one cop}^, as it costs only one dime, and this writer belives that everything will be forgiven us, just for suggesting and referring to the little book.) And then that extra session. Better treat it with silence. We will simply give the combined and con- densed answer to us, by an old North Carolina Democrat, and a Connecticut Republican, in response to our query, on March i, '93, which was: What would either, and [ both of you gentlemen think about, wish or say of, the man who would call an extra session of Congress to have the purchase clause of the Sherman act repealed, without substituting free coinage of silver in its stead? Both answered so spontaneously and interruptingly that we could not catch it all, but what we have you will find as plain and terse as we can give it. This is what they said : "Oh, we would be overjoyed at the opportunity of offering optative, operose orisons at his obsequies and overtax the orator to out-do past ossific orig-inality in ornating with ormula the oratory for his obituary, and oversee the poet to obviously obtund and outweigh it by an othodox, orphean ode on his oafish opuscule," We bade them good-bye until we should call around again, but to our lasting confusion be it publicly known that we forgot to set 'em up. At the past and present actions of the National Bank- er's Assn. there are none of us such mushheads as to be surprised. And why should any of us wonder at the 230 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS exasperating, excoriating, extortionary gall of that ex- ceptional exacerbating, execrable excresence on the I exorable exemplary wealth producer, by the exalted, ex- ! uberant, extravasating banker? For, of course, you all ' have heard of typhoons, simoons and Kansas cyclones, but they aint in it with the United States Senatorial Sirocco that blew on October ii, 1893, and supplied suffi- cient National bank basis wind for four years to come ; for thus did the air rush, in roaring, rolling, raging, tur- gid, tremulous waves. Senator H. M. Teller — "These great banks say to a gentleman who wants to borrow money, 'Very good, we will lend you $10,000.' The way they do it is to take his note and give him credit. Not a dollar passes from the bank to him. They put it on their books and say: 'Now you are entitled to draw from us $10,000.' Then they put on $10,000 for another; and so a bank with a capital of $100,000 will have $1,000,000 of deposits, which means that on its $100,000 it has given $1,000,000 of credits, and has taken the chances that all the depositors will not come for their money at once. The people drew out of the banks the $200,000,000 that we hear so much of, and they took any kind of paper — they took any kind of money metal ; they took anything that they could get. In addition, in New York City they were compelled to take nearly $40,000,000 of clearing- house certificates, which were simply the notes of a com- mittee of banks. Senator Higgins. CWonder if that is big Joe ?) I ask whether that was a novel or exceptional condition, or one which has been in existence for a long time? Senator Teller — That is not a novel condition. It is the usual method of banking:. But if the Senator will look he will see that the difference between the loans made by these banks now and ten years before the loans made, say in 1883, and the loans made in 1893, he will be convinced that there has been an inflation, not of money, but of bank credit unparalleled in this or any other country. It was not that the system is not per- fectly proper and perfectly natural. Oh, shade of Lin- coln ! Hast thou forsaken, and thy spirit deserted, waver- ing Harry and windy Joe, that either should dare to voice, or desire, such an execrable expression, "perfectly 231 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS proper and perfectly natural," that by a cunning wink, nod and turn of the wrist, that the great American people would be made to feel and forced to believe that they had a circulating medium of $6,790,000,000, or over $100 per capita, and to reave interest from the producer on that amount, instead of a bank capital of $679,000,000! Now, do you wonder, when the calm, cool, collected, censor of crazy crimes, with yells, now mayhap bereft of reason, is heard furiously asking: Can it be possible? Such words were uttered in the United States Senate. Was there ever such wilful, woful, wretched waste of printers' ink to print such searing seeds of insanity? Printer, stop that whirling rotation of your fast-flying pages that I may grasp some idea from that axiom, chat- tered by the imp Cerberus of demonology. Or do my eyes deceive me? Or must we all in unison with he who first expressed them? Yes, each and every one of us. Yes, even though it be the soul-shattering verity, to the world truthfully proclaim : I'm mad ! I'm mad ! ! I'm mad ! ! ! Yes, indeed. "Perfectly natural and per- fectly proper." Such a far-fetched Senatorial-courtesy- annihilating-anathema hurled with political buffoonery and hypocritical nicety against the emulous, echinated, sov- ereign justice of true social economic science. How poet- ically beautiful and harmonious it would sound from an ecstatic, economic empiric. And how musically conson- I ant and aesthetically congenerous it chimes with, in its seductive, shattering, shimmering sheen, superbly spar- kling as it spins in its silvery somersault, and scarcely equalled or paralleled by the famous fetid-acrobatic- tongue-springs of truth-tumbling given in the ferine, fal- sifying gold acts entitled "Now you see and now you don't" by his Eminence Robbahjon Hisself. Oh, Harry, is that rotten, rancid fad Senatorial Kurtzy your plain hard sense of justice and manly duty's necrophagous Hoodoo? Here we caution: Should you suspect. Then Let Us Pray ! 232 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART VI. TAXES TARIFF. Lawful taxes. — Fullest publicity. — Government national taxes of two kinds. — Tariff maintains high prices. — Appears absurd to whom? — Sugar. — Argument for Tariff on necessaries. — Day's wages of laborer. — Bona fide American citizen. — Naturalized. — Mr. Shrewd- Delineator, alien tax. — Premium on American citizenship. — Labor power. — American labor protection. — Cheesy Chestnut. — Sugar bounty duty. — Our idiotic clap-trap. — Listen to the farmer. — Bounty on sugar beets. — Paper better than gold. — What the boy says. — Na- poleon prohibited sugar. — English free trade with Ireland. — Wool bounty duty. — Out on such rot. — Who would suffer by bounty duty? — Equatorial suit of full dress. — Government setting prices. — Duty enough too. — Interest on active capital. — Duty on lead. — Discrimina- tion on lead duty. — Beet factory president and beet-sugar factory president. — Rule of three. — The woolly question. — Woolly Hon-u-r-a- lulu. — Mary's little lamb. — $4 for the laborer's daily wages, $15 for Congressman and $137 for the boss of equal rights. — Prospector on the tariff. — Echo. — The miner on the tariff. — He remembers Lin- coln. — Hobos and holdups. — Liberty and omniparity of man. — How can we vote for them ?- Taxes must be raised or contributed in order to defray the expenses encumbered on the deputized government in the preservation of society or in the execution and administration of societary law, for the protection of life, and property, from the vandal, or he who would collect or reave from anyone, any realty or profit without ren- dering a full and actual equivalent of intrinsic worth, and as far as possible in human affairs the maintenance of adequate and commensurate security in the possession of liberty and the pursuit of ordinate pleasure and happi- ness. A lawful tax is an authorized levy, or subscription, laid and collected by the legitimately organized or established government of a nation, state, dominion, country, district, city or town. The transaction, or assessment and collec- tion, of which should be executed or laid and collected with as much publicity as possible and with the most scrutinizing regard for its indiscriminate distribution, to 233 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS be assessed and levied in proportion to the amount of property held or owned, or the amount of revenue, in- come or benefits derived from society or the state, by each individual or corporation, in order to thereby avoid as much as possible the inimical danger of an unjust or inequitable distribution of the burden of support of either of said governments. In order the better to provide for an impartial adjust- ment of the amount each property holder, business man, income recipient, possessor of money, or other valuables, or elector, should bear or contribute ; a mute, reciprocal controller should be established in the form of a pub- lished tabulated alphabetical list, to be posted and kept exposed in a conspicuous place in a free public resort, of the amount of property, funds, etc., assessed to each in- dividual, and the separate amounts of taxes to be collect- ed from each. Such list to be posted in each assessors district as soon as the assessor shall have completed, or nearly so, his tax list. Said list should remain posted until all those taxes are paid, or until the expiration of the year of payment, so that all concerned can compare the amount of their taxes with others, and thus have ample time and opportunity to make complaints and for the correction of discrimination or abuses in the levy. To the foregoing publication a rather numerous and implacable enemy would be found in the persons of those who have no visible taxable property but still pose as people in. high standing, and those who place their prop- erty in their wife's, or others' name, but who continue to do business in their own in order the better to conspire against the unsuspecting, honestly inclined individual, and to thereby facilitate their evil design, or conquest, on the uninitiated. True, plausible objections may be raised to the forcy going proposition of publication by saying that the rec- ords are open to examination or inspection, but this is an intentionally dishonest excuse, for besdes the extra trouble and expense to the inquirer it would necessitate at least ten times the amount to pay for extra clerk hire than the cost of its publication would amount to, and the posting in public would require, and all this renders the 234 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS taxpayer backward in making inquiries, as he supposes that it is commonly held to be none of his business. The question then is, Whose business is it? Why legislators do not compel this or similar publica- tion to be a requirement of the law in every state and county. It is to be greatly feared that it may be an- swered thus. That being in the swim they may get the benefit of an unequal distribution, but alas ! such benefits rarely bring blessings of peace and contentment to either public or private individuals, for honesty has its own cer- tain rewards, and were there none other of them but a self-approving mind or conscience this would seem at least one of the tellic incentives of man in all his actions, while temporarily halting here in his transitory sojourn among the other animals, for life at best is but a line of infinity and man, but an inconceivably small speck in the illimitable kingdom of matter or realms of space. The United States national government taxes may be said to be of two kinds. The one that is the so-called tariff is a duty, a tax, an impost, or a toll imposed pre- sumably at the instance, in the interest, and with the con- sent of the producing masses against all consuming classes, by the government on imported goods or mer- chandise on their entry into the country in opposition, in the markets, to home productions. Which levy is laid with the design to stimulate home industry by an arti- ficial creation of the incentive of a higher ruling price for commodities in the home market and the mainte- nance of a consequent or attendant higher ruling price on all goods, reluctantly purchased by foreigners, than in the general and natural course of events could otherwise with any deg-ree of certainty be maintained, with the one exception of increasing our circulating medium per capita manifold more than that now existing, and more than the comparative volume of money in circulation with for- eigners, only by either of those conditions can we main- tain high prices on our commodities no matter what their indispensable intrinsic values and no matter how wild or fanciful the legal, figurative, imaginary value of money of any kind may be. It may be here stated that this toll or tax enables the 235 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS American export merchant, not laborer, to charge, main- tain and receive a higher general price current than could otherwise exist without many times increasing our relative volume of legal tender, for provisions or mer- chandise absolutely needed, by foreign countries to allay, avoid, divert or prevent want, hunger, destitution, and even famine among the poorer producing masses in over- crowded communities, which suffering some European countries are continualh^ on the verge of even in years of a normal yield of crops and are periodically visited with famines of considerable extent from crop failures ; which permanent and periodical conditions compel them to purchase breadstuffs, etc., abroad, and therefore we find them our unwilling customers, by their having no other alternative, somewhat similar, but that they labor under more stringent conditions to our resident of Dakota having to patronize the Southern cotton planter. If we allowed in their cheaper labor-manufactured ma- terial to compete with our own without the purchaser or consumer paying a tax or toll for his unpatriotic act of purchasing from a citizen of a foreign nation in prefer- ence to one of his own, and if this tax on foreign com- modities and premium of price on American wares did not exist the current or ruling prices of all commodities would then, as a self-evident proposition, rule lower, and we as a nation be the consequent loser, to which loss we would be predestined, by the removal of the tax, of the difference between the then existing ruling prices and those now created, or caused, by the changed conditions, and therefore lose that amount of the foreigner's pro rata bullion, notes or credit of exchange, com.pulsively given by him in exchange for our indispensable necessaries of life, which factors could be applied in purchasing propor- tionally more of his comforts or luxuries from him, or simply retain so much more of his bullion. So we see the inevitable result of the removal of the duty or tax would wind up in the inability of the Amer- ican merchant to maintain the price current, with the tax removed, that the imposition of the tax enabled him to do by the relative enhancement in price of all commod- 236 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ities by the fixed enhancement or additional tax price of one or more. Another of the noisily vaunted purposes of this tax or tariff is the definitely admitted, and the most general and explicit reason assigned by the expositor of protec- tion, who lays vociferous emphasis on the fact that the toll is levied for the expressed purpose of keeping up American labor- wages. He don't say of enabling land compelling the American employer to pay higher wages for labor than that prevailing in other countries, but pur- posely leaving it optional with the employer to pay any wages he may choose to, and then also adds, with a loud and cunning yell (possibly he knows no better, poor fellow!), and, moreover the further intention of provid- ing steady employment to all who may apply. But, now seemingly suddenly becoming exhausted from nervousness, superinduced by the excitement caused by the feeling aroused within him from pure patriotism for his country and labial love for the laborer, whenever the subject is under public discussion, the political, palaver- ing poltroon cunningly and advisedly drops, or cuts short, the subject; but we will take it up further on and endeavor to impartially examine his assertions and try to discover whether they are prompted by his patriotic or pecuniary interests in, or ignorance of the subject, or wilful knavery concerning it, or a somewhat different ratio of all combined. Calmly considering all the propositions laid down and all the logically laciniated reasons assigned by the elab- orate expounder of a protective tariff, and others, for levy- ing an import duty, we gradually arrive at an irrefutable and irrevocable conclusion, that those who conceived and perfected the tariff were right in their surmises as to its operation nationally, and that those claims laid down in paragraphs 491-5 inclusive, are justly borne out by the past and present demonstrated facts, and will ever con- tinue so, as long as a protective tariff exists, or is levied, provided that the social structure of governments and especially that of the United States remain the same or without radical change from how they are now constitut- ed, constructed and conducted or administered. 237 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS To some perfidious, as well as mercenary advocates of free trade, some of whom we could name, and to those who follow the former for the reason that poodles go to church, and to those who, from an}^ cause, have not given the subject the attention and investigation it de- serves, and to those who perversely and blindly follow the blind for reasons they are incapable of defining, and are willing to sacrifice their own rights and the rights of their fellow Americans, even should their patriotic pride get smirched, for the gaseous, shadowy, bombastic noth- ingness of /'the name of party," and to all the accidental or self-constituted leaders of the bogus democracy, to-day in the lead, whose administration of the financial afifairs of the country bears a striking resemblance to the follow- ing. Just imagine a protean prototype of this govern- ment represented by the seven departments in the form of a septagonal mythical chariot, with a powerful steed hitched to each angle and his eminent obesity perched in the center on top in a revolving chair, mercilessly plying the whip to his prancing, cow^ering steeds, who are vainly endeavoring to drag this nation apart, while the millions of hungry and idle, but willing workers, are aimlessly, but with ever-increasing frenzy, passing in review, and now if 3^ou excuse this weak efifort at tropology, I trow you will have a true taurine thaumatrope that this trite thaumaturgus or theurgist told you about, object lesson, without even a tinge or trace of trepidation ; to all such of course the indisputable decision arrived at in par. 497 it would appear absurd and be, by them, unhesitatingly pronounced as a superlative exhibition of insolence, igno- rance, pedantry or egotism. Well, we will only remark that we have not quit the subject yet. In the matter of establishing proofs literal^ illustra- tive of the facts of the effects of a protective tariff being the factitious agent in creating for all marketable commodi- ties and concomitant or congeneric services, as also for all property, real estate, chattels and all potential consociates, an advanced current price is necessary to investigate its workings. By the casual observer it would be, no doubt, con- sidered superfluous in this date, and age, to offer here 238 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS a rehearsal of all the numerous proofs adduced by its supporters, which are all generally understood and universally admitted, as fact, by even the most ardent opponents of protection; or to draw deductions from some of its features in its simplest direct workings, were he not reminded of the plausible supposition that this work may be sought i,ooo years hence for reference as to how the whole thing and the old thing worked ; there- fore lest they, who, although so far eloigned, yet our own direct offspring. Dod bess de tiny, tutsy wutsies, de dear heavenly little babies ! Yes, lest they should suffer the smallest iota of anxiety by being allowed to remain be- nighted on this subject, we hope to be pardoned in at- tempting to state the plain appearance and action of a few of its shreds in some of their open dealings. SUGAR. Sugar is one of the principal productions of the world, an element of which civilezed man consumes a large amount. For every loo tons produced in the world the United States produces about three tons, while we con- sume ten times our production or 30 tons, or per cent., of the world's production, or 30 tons of every 100 produced by the whole world, of which we import about $110,- 000,000 worth now per annum, the old tariff on which would have amounted to $50,000,000 in 1893, or about eighty cents per capita for the millionaire or mendicant, which was reduced, as it should have been, as it acted in a most unfair and discriminate way in its operations for many reasons, a few of which we will offer here. First, it can be seen that the United States does not produce over 10 per cent, of its own consumption and therefore it cannot be rightfully classed among what is known as an American principal production of an ade- quate sufficiency for home consumption, and therefore if the duty was not found to be absolutely necessary for the support of government it should have been reduced to a minimum or levied only of sufficient amount to cover an outlay for a bounty to be paid as an incentive for its production at home, as well as to relatively maintain 239 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS high prices for all other, particularly exportable, commod- ities; the bounty per pound to decrease as the revenue from duty decreased, so as to permanently maintain two cents difference per pound in the home and foreign market prices. In this way the infant industry should and could be stimulated until such times as the then fostered industry could produce sugar in sufficient quan- tity for home consumption at least. Then the bounty to be supplanted b}^ that of the import duty alone, which would still enable the producer of the article to pay a continued higher rate of wages than his foreign com- f petitor. Is not that plain enough? f Second, from the fact that sugar has long been and f now is considered one of the principal necessaries of life, J' and generally he who works hardest consumes most f whenever possessed of the ability to purchase it, con- [ sequently the common laborer paid more of such govern- ment, or sugar-trust tax, than the multi-millionaire, re- |! gardless of the unequal government expenditure in the \ fostering care of the life and property, etc., of the two individuals. The laborer being compelled to pay most for being guilty of individual productive exertion for the betterment of all society, and probably for the crime of i not having property for government to guard. For the j noisy exponent of protective principles here is a moral, I extra-duty for having a good appetite and no property ! Third, for the reason that the brightest advocates of a protective tariff, as well as all unpartisan thinkers, were [ always and are now in favor of allowing in the absolute ' necessaries of life, with the smallest possible duty con- | sistent with the best interest of the public service when- ' ever it is known that a sufficient amount cannot be, or is not produced at home, and with the exception of that brand of fire-eating, peccant partisans whose descrescent career few will mourn, and whose audiences generally are as shallow as themselves, for none other would listen to them if they could but make their exit, all are agreed that little direct if any benefit can be obtained by impos- ing an exorbitant import duty on the commodities neces- sary for self-sustentation, and that should a struggling industry be found in the production of such a commodity 240 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS it should be fostered and protected by a bounty sufficient to enable it to pay American wages and thus compete with the imported material. It may be well to here note an argument put forward among others in support of the advisability of taxing necessaries not produced at home in sufficient quantity which we must admit contains a certain degree of con- sistency. The reasons given, condensed, are these: That it would provide the laborer a proportionate amount of justice in demanding a proportionate increased amount of wages on account of the per-consequent increased cost of living, which increased wages and cost of living would necessitate an increased amount of an active circulating medium, and a consequent increased market value of all property, with a corresponding increased government expenditure for general expenses, necessary public im- provements, etc., an increased standing among the na- tions of the world, as well as the relatively increased cost-price on our goods to the foreign, reluctantly-com- pelled purchaser. There watchword seems to be increase and no progress. Now, as the foregoing reasons assigned may be said to be, and to us appears, slightly possessed of, adorned or decked with a small degree of connotative dubiety, since all of the articles of luxury, convenience or comfort that may, or may not, be produced at home, together with all the home, fully competitive, slightly or non-protected necessaries of life provide a field ample enougjfi, or of sufficient extent in themselves to admit of revenue opera- tions, to be conducted on a diversiform scale, to agree or act in just harmony with the occupations, amount of revenues and privileges, and diverse possessions, or prop-, erty holdings of all the parties in interest; in a manner and number comprehensive and capable of covering all of the several points which might afford discussion, and of yielding revenue sufficient so that a deficit of $7,000,000 or $8,000,000 per month could not easily occur, as is the case at this writing; as also to provide the laborer with sufficient justifiable grounds for a reasonable and equit- able demand for a proportionate rate of wages in ac- cordance with the increased cost of living. 241 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I A fair estimate of a laborer's wages would be, for each • day's labor, a sufficient amount to provide a family of | five persons with the necessaries of life and some such j comforts as cleanliness, reasonable amount of amuse- I ment, a little music (besides the factory whistle), some I literature, etc. The day's labor to consist of six, eight or ■] ten hours, according to the constancy and amount of i physical and mental force required in the operation, and \ with due regard for sanitary or deleterious conditions or | surroundings, for such day's labor, in consideration for , the privileges now enjoyed, of the easy access of the | benefits to be derived from a sudden change of climate, as j for instance, running over to cooler Canada when the i heat of excitement here becomes so intense as to explode ( the banks and others of like nature, solely due to recent i or modern inventions of an inestimable value although not figured in the profit and loss account as yet, and of i which the sedulous class can rarely avail themselves of, and in consideration of other things best left unsaid in i the interest of a class steadily increasing, we consider under all conditions that $4 per day is a fair day's wages in this stage of the present century, neither too large nor i too small, in our opinion for a bona fide American citizen, j I BONA FIDE CITIZEN, NATIVE. j i: Our estimation of, or understanding of what constitutes the latter individual, may be summed up in the following \- few words : Any native-born (naturalized citizen, par. j 511) individual arriving at the age of responsibility, de- ' fined by the law, who with consistency and continuity i- -subscribes to, and is governed in all of their political \ and social actions, by all of the philosophical contextures ^' of that article known as the Constitution of the United j^ States (until another may be devised and perfected), and f all statutory laws not in conflict therewith, and stand j ever ready to defend the same by a forfeit of all their I possessions when necessary, and their life whenever called I on, and never try to imitate, propagate or propagand \. social ideas or sophistries antagonistic or foreign to re- publican alethiology or divine reality; all of this not 242 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS only in their public professions or expressions, but in both public or private or secret actions and literal and social engagements. The unceasingly faithful intentions and voluntary strict observance of those conditions con- stitute a bonafide American citizen. Please point out the faults in that definition whenever you can? We will feel everlastingly indebted to you for having charitably and fraternally set us lucently right. The strict observance of such conditions and duties would prohibit anyone from joining or becoming or re- maining a member of any secret society, the tenets or dogmatic teachings or injunctions of which would tend in any way to curtail or abridge the rights, privileges or immunities guaranteed to all by the Constitution, which if found in error amend it, or which would work any hardship, duress, or bring or spread any discrepant dis- dain on anyone on account of the religion of any citizen of the United States, which religion or religions are tol- erated by the Constitution of the United States (not either England's, Turkey's or Russia, but this, the United States Constitution). BONA FIDE CITIZEN, N.\TI"RALIZED. Therefore should anyone become a member of any such order or politico-religio society, either public or secret, thereby constitute themselves a deluding and bellicose follower of the Constitution, and a consequent deceptive political enemy of our republican institution, then on joining the same they immediately and logically cease being a bonafide American citizen. The act of becoming and remaining a member of such a society is sufficient cause in itself for their disfranchisement with- out further formality, such disfranchisement to entail the loss of all the rights and privileges of citizenship and allowing no benefits except those allowed all aliens. The naturalized, bona fide American citizen is derived from any foreign-born individual, who, being discon- tented with their social surroundings, commercial stand- ing, future prospects, or other causes, resolves to cast their lot for life in the United States and become one of 243 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS its citizens through due process of qualifications stipulat- ed by law, and comes to this country for that express pur- pose and complies with the prescribed duties and exac- tions laid down to govern such during their term of probation, and who sincerely subscribes to all the condi- tions laid down in par. 508, and who like unto native- born bona fide citizens shall always promote American interests independent of, and to the exclusion of, all others whenever possible. A full and true compliance with all those conditions by any normal Caucasian human being constitute them a bona fide American citizen. Before leaving this contingent part of the subject we will ask Mr. Shrewd Delineator, No. i, combine Pro- tective Benefit St., Cit)^ of Labor, Does not an opportune time now present itself and has done so for years to you and your co-dissemblers or coadjutors to show your genuine appreciation of American laborers, and get your- self mixed up in greater whirling confusion and make yourself more ridiculous if possible by dabbling in social problems that are wholly beyond your conception, or that, by sophisms you try to belie or pervert, and possi- bly by accident to make a practical distinction and labor protection between bonafide American and alien labor, by procuring the enactment of laws providing for the collection of a tax from employers of alien labor? Such alien labor to include all those who are not American citizens, or who ma}^ be undergoing their probationary period or term, and all those who from any cause may, in the operations of the law, become disfranchised. The amount of tax to be imposed to be $1 per diem, to be paid at the end of each month, by the employer of I such labor, for each individual alien employee, that he | may have had in his employ during the month, the tax j to be paid directly to the collector of direct graduated income tax. On the basis of four dollars per day for , the American laborer there would be yet left to the alien j more than 100 per cent., more than he could obtain for 1 similar services in the country which he voluntarily ' exiled himself from, or was by an interest-bearing finan- | cial system compulsively expelled, for which European j existing conditions the American laborer was wholly I 244 ' , PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS blameless. Then what should be done with this alien tax? This tax should be fully, or entirely, applied as a part of government expenditures for national public improve- ments, and when the sum of $500 would be thus paid into the treasury, for which the alien would hold receipts, and then at that time or after on the alien satisfactorily passing an educational examination in the American lan- guage and fundamental principles of the social structure and republican alethiology of our institutions, to be al- lowed to full citizenship and not before, and then to re- ceive a certificate entitling him to one year's employment on public improvements at full wages, in order to enable him to accumulate the $500 contributed for the new com- mon benefit of his new social family or society. The alien on arriving who might be able to pay the $500 into the public fund and satisfactorily, as the other, pass or qualify by educational examination, to be admitted like- wise to citizenship. ASSOCIATION. This would not only set a premium on American citi- zenship but would tend to act as an incentive to a greater appreciation of such indisputable social blessings by those, who for the past thirty years, have so shamelessly and unpardonably abused and desecrated them ; but it would act as a most powerful agent in forcing European governments to seek, or devise, a more equitable financial system than the present accursed, individual-interest- bearing-money system now in existence, by which the laborer is actually and palpably robbed; and a favored few enabled to procure natural productions without ef- fort, or the expenditure of human labor power, which is the most sublimely supreme power in Nature, and as imperishable as Nature itself, while Nature wills regenera- tion possible ; for not only does labor power consist of a similar force as all other natural forces, namely, germina- tion, dynamic force, resisting force, affinity or accumula- tive force, changing force, etc., but which is, and must act in conjunction with, a soul, to be fruitful, to which 245 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS soul all other forces of Nature are, and must be, sub- servient ever, for without this soul-power (not the bogus Church soul) all other natural productions, or life-sus- taining forces, except inert matter, sunlight, air and water, and all animals that might procure a precarious and carnivorous existence, would now sweal, from the face of the earth as snow beneath a midsummer sun, as would also all artificially conjured and perverted agencies of machinating man's imagination, or the creation, with- . out physical effort and post-perversion of the crafty soul, unwilling to sustain the body by guiding physical action, but prefers to loll in luxury on the sole contrivances of kindred wayward souls, or in other words, royally revel in sweepstakes by its own cunning and on the shape of its own fastidious casket, through that savage devised agent, money, for which on earth there is no basis, in an abstract sense, except the common soul of the whole com- munity, which renders it common, public, community property ; therefore essentially unproductive, although perverted by the law to beget that Satanically intuitive bastard of philosophism on social equity. Interest, for the existence of which the only excuse offered is that nobly despised ancient fad — of those cancerous ulcers on the social body, breeding, as in a hotbed of virtue's sororicides, vice, crime, immorality; class distinction and baseless, empty pride, generally known by the glimmer- ing euphuism of mammoth social associations, such as those great storehouses of fabulous wealth and abject squalor, dazzling luxury and rifting destitution with their church steeples, mocking, factory stacks, vesper- bells, mimicing workshop whistles, and their numerous peddling, huckstering stalls for other's products, and idiotic gew-gaws and cretinic baubles! Such known vulgarly as New York, Esq., the father-in-law of national villainy ; obsolete, hollow-sounding Boston with its effem- inate, corset-trimmed, eye-glassed dudes; and poor old sleepy Philadelphia with its would-be aristocratic rag- pickers, flippantly flaunting its get-rich-quick schemes, etc., etc. And such association! What a desecration of the power of speech! That abominably apathetic con- glutination of self-love, dog-idolatry and miisanthropy, 2a6 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS composed of human paupers and their princely parasites ! Who dares to again call it human or social association? Or liken it to that soulful, heavenly association of the family circle, which fully satiates the desire of all men true to Nature's soul, of which theirs is but a speck, which inflames the mind with such heat and light to enable it to soar to the realms of lofty thoughts and noble deeds, and on descending seeks but the shadow of social association for his groundwork, to display his charitable justice in promoting the universal brotherhood of man. You who would follow holy Nature's prompt- ings hinder him not ! By wiping out, and from the photographic agent of his will, money, that social cancer interest. Indeed it is high time, apropos of the alien tax, that American interests should be protected in the fullest sense that the word implies. As it would do no injury to the alien but would inevitably result in forcing his government to vanish from the earth to a forgotten grave in the buried past, or otherwise allow him more of the just fruits of his labor by abolishing interest and its concomitant apish, divine-right tyrants of soulless greed, would then be compelled to share with their brethren in Christ and Nature, some of the fostering care, ad- miration and love now bestowed on poodle dogs or hounds of the chase, kept for the alternating, fiendishly brutal^ amusement of chasing to death the innocent hare, when not engaged in the more edifying pastime of driv- ing the bond-chain-harnessed slave to a premature grave.. Yes, then they would be compelled to share the shel- ter of the dog-kennel with the homeless babe, or grand- mother, crowded out from that vengeance-roaring monu- ment to departed equity, the poorhouse, who, as yet, might not be allowed to rest in sleep, their weary, gaunt, hollow-eyed, heart-deadened frame and hunger-weakened, totterins: brain, on the marble-diamond floor of the House of the Rich man's God. In conforming your future actions to the perfecting of the above suggestions for the betterment of the Amer- ican laborer you would be propagating your initial legis- lation, bearing in any way directly in faA^or of the toiling 247 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS masses during the last thirty years of which we have cognizance, which fact you must be occasionally re- minded of in future. As all progressive measures must be proved by experiments now such a law could be passed in forty-eight hours without transubstantiating it into a musty chestnut, and it could be repealed whenever proved to work an unjust hardship to the human family. But we are aware of the unreasonableness of asking you to en- gage with all your might for the consummation of the foreg-oing suggestions should you encounter the opposi- tion of your last thirty years perfidious, ungrateful, sour- souled god and master. Capital; for you that awe-inspir- ing demon, yet but truly composed of nothing more dangerous or harmful than the ignominiously unjust ag- gregation or accumulation of the fruits of unrequited, honest labor. Such made possible only by the base, partial and vicious laws enacted for the past thirty years in favor of the insolent and inhuman monopolist and usurer, which read more like the vaporings of a vapid idiot than the wise, deliberate, impartial con- clusions concentrated into financial law of economic statesmen. As to the argumentative allegations given elsewhere, and the partly suggestive answer following, we will leave the question undecided for the good and sufficient reason that we are prompted to do so simply by our naturally characteristic feelings of pity, mingled, with appreciation and magnanimity for both the democrat and republican parties and also profound admiration for the able public discussion given to the questions which their erudite orators designate as being of nationally vital importance. Therefore lest those macrotus, multilo- quent mentors should momentarily sufifer from a dearth of subjects we hereby respectfully present our Bachelor's mite of a (we hope to be pardoned for christening it), Cheesy Chestnut. Yes, and why not? Chestnut has it not been almost the sole right of party existence, as they lovingly agree, but pretend to spat, yet swap spits on finance, and it is also even their ivory chased toothpick for thirty years at least, and were the average politicians possessed of the slightest degree of sensitiveness or 248 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS pride the crimson life-fluid would mantle their brow as with a scarlet sin-stained robe at the mere mention of that old, aged, ancient Chestnut, Tariff. The law, which provides a bounty for sugar for a term of years, is now about to be amended so as to lessen the bounty allowed and also the term of years. On the strength of the passage of this bounty law great impetus was given the sugar industry (see report of Secretary of Agriculture, 1893, if you doubt), as was also by a number of individuals and corporations entering the business of the production of sugar. This, of course, necessitated a large investment of capital, energy and attention, allured by the understanding that the law would be in operation for fourteen years, and those who enteerd the business made their calculations accordingly, as also their investments. Now, should the proposed amended law go into effect, is there not a hardship caused to, or worked on, the in- vestor? But who is going to recompense him (possibly the Demi party would give him a P. O. without a handle), for the depreciation in his investment. Or must he suffer for the good of all society from whom he receives all benefits (excluding supernatural), or must he suffer for the material benefit of his European neighbor from whom all American curses flow, and are fished out on the wing with a Skutch berrel, or a lame-demi-john for a shot- gun? The latter is the intention in order to shoot down the soaring, ruling price so that the foreign prince may purchase provisions cheaper to stall-feed his harlots, hounds and other dogs. But we suppose that the sugar-man will be recom- pensed by the same outfit and in the same time and manner (if not by American paper money then by Roths- childs in his will), as a silver-man will be reimbursed by for the depreciation of his mine and consociate mining property to the amount of $200,000,000, by the repeal of the act providing for the monthly purchase of silver ; and also the same party or agent who is going to re-es- tablish the previously prevailing market value of all American commodities, the decrease in which is incal- culable, but may be set down with safety at from $25,- 000,000,000 to $30,000,000,000. 249 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Do all those individuals have to suffer in order to lower the price of all commodities and provide them cheaper to our common enemy our English cozenic cousins, simply because some churlish, obese, demo- cratic gawk might have got an Ernest Seyd American — $ — Pie or an English — £ — Cake? Or better still, it might be possible that a few of our traitorous time- servers might, with treacherous turpitude, share in a second and transcending Ernest Seyd wedding cake pro- cured expressly for the big feast for mammon at the mar- riage of American, Widespread Destitution and Miss National Disgrace ! It .would seem that the latter would be the naturally bristling paradigm of the paradoxical politician of to-day. The attention of Mr. D., whose acquaintance we formed elsewhere, is called to the following, concerning the sugar bounty law enacted by the republican party. There is two cents per pound now paid, 1893, as a premium or bounty on American produced sugar. Let us see if it is paid out as it should be in order to stimulate the indus- j try, without any discrimination. We say certainly not ! The democratic organs surpass with supreme swagger the most sudatory or sweltering efforts to their similarly strumming, discordant opponents' pianos, unsimilar only in proclaiming to the patient world, the thermal throes that they endure when pondering on the injustice done the farmer through the evils of a tariff or bounty. The republican screeching-piano-press point with pride to the bounty and say in effect : Behold ! Our Action. See for yourself the interest we take in industry or labor of all kinds, without distinction. Now, if there was no pessimist to indulge in critical clap-trap or the vaporing rot of an idiotic malcontent, like us, it might have a soothing, quieting influence on universal discontent. But hold on Partner ! Listen to the farmer a moment. He says that when the republicans were framing that law that they lost all recollection of the farmer, for the records bear no evidence that they were not at perfect liberty to give one-half of that bounty to the farmer, which would allow him $2 per ton for his beets, and pro- portionately to the cane raiser, which beets was the 250 ..._j PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS farmer's finished product, and this $2 per ton would leave him in pretty fair circumstances to drive a live and let live bargain v^ith the sugar-factory capitalist, who could have got, yet, nearly one and one-fourth cents per pound out of the two cents per pound bounty, for one ton of beets will average over 235 of sugar, the beets are gener- ally sold at the factory for $5 per ton, so that the sugar capitalist, on account of his sweetness and dandy shape, really gets his beets for nothing, and there is more capital and labor employed in producing the beets than in the establishment of the factory and its operation. Let us look at the proof for this last assertion, taken from the average report of six beet-sugar factories. Take 134 farm- ers putting in each rotation crops of ten acres of beets, with an average of fifteen tons, or 1,334 acres, producing 20,000 tons. Capital invested in each ten acres, horses, wagons, buildings,, plows, etc., etc., average $1,800, or a total of $250,000. We will, in order to simplify it, not allow interest for money invested in farms or factory, nor sal- aries for the bon-bon-factory president, or his son-in-law expert accounting commuter, nor for the beet-factory president, or farming-expert actuary, and to average day's wages at $2 per day. Plowing, subsoiling and preparing for planting. Per acre % 5.00 Cost of seed $2.25, planting SI. 75, hoeing and thinning 16.00 " 10.00 Cultivating with horse hoe five times " 5.00 Topping and harvesting ' * 16.00 Average 2 mile, hauling to factory 75 cents per ton, or total cost per acre 15.00 $51. ( Total cost per ton 15) $3.40 Average price per ton at factory $5.00 5.00 " profit " for farmer , $1.60 Factory, average capacity in 3 months, of 20,000 tons of beets. Capital invested less than $200,000, Total receipts per ton of beets, or 280 of sugar at 4^ cents $11.90 Syrup molasses and pulp 1 00 $13.00 Salaries, average $1, per ton of beets, or $20,000, or 28 per more than all the labor of the factory, but not reckoned herein, 251 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Average cost of beets per ton delivered $5.00 ' * " labor per ton of beets .72 " coal " " 63 Miscelaneous, lime, sacks, barrels, etc .98 Total cost of manufacture 7.88 ' ' factory price 13.00 " profit per ton beets |5.67 Or $5.67 factory profit per ton of beets, or over three and one-half times the $1.60, or farmer's profit, without the bounty. With a bounty of two cents per pound on 280 pounds of sugar, or $5.60 and $5.67, factory profit $11.27, or over seven times the farmer's $1.60 profit. If the factory had received one and two-seventh cents per pound on the sugar as a bounty this would leave the farmer $2 per ton on the beets, which would enable him to pay $4 per day for labor and leave — if the human labor cost $1.80 per ton on the farm, or two and one-half times the amount of labor in the factory — a profit of twenty cents more or $1.80 per ton beets, and still leave the factory five and three-twentieth times the profit of the farmer, or a total of $9.27 per ton. Now, is this the reason why you hear the journalistic-hoosier-hobo, of the patent-inside-brains of the hedging-hebdomadal-harrier so loudiy barking, chattering and jabbering with incessant repetition, the bribed-bulletin (editorial) of his urban babbling blustering bubbling brother-bum, about the sanctity of Capital (the aggregated legal robbings from righteous labor), that it must be reverenced on its reav- ing mission, that it must not only be coaxed and courted, bonds and bonus given, but the neck must be oiled and the knee greased, to be ever ready with sanctimonious bow and genuflexion at the appearance or approach of the gold-gorgon god, so that if his titular party is suc- cessful he may get the county-printing prize? And should the unfortunate city or country editor possess the slightest spark of light of true social science and tiniest atom of purest patriotism and have the daring to express it, by saying the farmer is as well entitled to borrow from government for the exploitation of farm or factory as the alien banker, then the hobo hoarsely howls, hollos and heralds him as a calamity-howler, and placards and os- 252 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tracises him as an anarchist ! Simply because this would allow the farmer $12.87 profit per ton and if he paid $6 per day for labor in field and factory he would still have left $5.23 per ton profit, or three and one-fourth times the $1.60 he now has or receives. Oh, what beauti- ful Demi-Rep. consistency. ! Is this the kind of equitable laws you enact for the benefit of labor? Indeed it is rather difficult to ferret out an excuse, even from the fertile brain of the fulgent politician, for his formal, flagrant forgetfulness of the farmer, and he finds himself forced for excuse to rely on the chief tenet of the practical faith of the politician, so that he may retain the favor of the galling gods that forbids the placing of the plebian on the same plane with his perversive, patrician patron. As the present tariff bill reported to the lower house by that admiringly bewildered inmate, or wingless-bat, crawling around, that fusty colossean cradle, nursery, in- valid hospital, home of senescense, church and insane asylum of social sophistry, whose superannuated mopes, from the ancient portholes of its bastion, with satanic, phrenetic joy and senile grin, mock the true philosophers of alethiology and equity on their slow but certain jour- ney to the goal of progressive perfection ! Yes, that cote of Colligated Elenchus ! The College. Bookworm Wilson as chorister, accompanied by the croaking chord of a coterie of crossroads' chanticleers, makes no provision for this $2 per ton on beets or its equivalent on sugar cane. The farmer, with genuine regret, at last intuitivel}^ becomes aware of the unholy, treasonable union of the leading politicians of both old parties, with capital, for the purpose of the more efficacious exploitation of the farmer, who, profoundly pondering on this portentious pact, resolves henceforth to preclude from all partition of his electoral patronage, which he will now prize as a piv- otal plenipotence, and thereby prevent the predaceous politicians from participating in any more perfidious, political, poltroonish, prefigurations. And as he proceeds with his prevalent placidity, plodding after his primary plough, he gently, thought sarcastically murmurs, "Well, 253 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I thought that when that quintal of blubber, myriagram of bones, ton of blustering bullheadedness and milligram of brains, with its acephalous co-essential, collated au- tomatons, were winding out winsome wishes for the weal of the farmer, that they were weaving them from wily, woful warp and woof, spun from wasteful wind, and were but forcing gas through their stovepipes. Exit farmer. SUGAR BOUNTY. Well, should the bounty on sugar be distributed or applied without discrimination, with a fair and equitable share for both separate branches of the industry or depart- ments of labor- necessary for its production, that is, the farming department and the factory department, the in- dustry would be certain to receive an im.petus equalled only in its acceleration by a Kansas cyclone, for then the plebian would promptly prove his pride in the then practical premium and proud prominence given to pre- dominating labor. Certain it is that flimsy, whimsical, groundless objections would be made to such a proposi- tion, one such would undoubtedly be this: That capital might not be satisfied with the proposed allotment or division of the bounty and might hesitate to embark in the enterprise. Certainly it might hesitate, and will, just so long as he who runs may read with cer- tainty that, by the giving of a bribe he can have legisla- tion framed to order to exactly fit any particular case in point, and it will be so until he is forced to distinctly understand that all laws in futvire must be made bearing equal benefits to all, just so long will he hesitate in such cases, and just so long will shallow-minded pessimists offer such puerile, unpatriotic objections. When, or if, capital hesitates, then, why not the gov- ernment issue or loan the farmers the required amount necessary to erect a factory in a favorable locality, on the giving of a good and sufficient bond, such as is now required in an internal revenue or other transaction? Oh, the cozenic cynic cries, that's Sub-Treasury doctrine ! Well, suppose it is? You snivellino- spray of a para- sitical incubus ! You illegitimate offshoot of the illicit 254 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS cohabitation of politics and piracy ! You vicious votary of those vampires and vultures, the bankers and boodlers! Have you got any reasonable argument to put forward why it is the farmer should not be loaned money by the Government that he creates to do so, as well as, or in preference to, that insolent, intolerant, idle, irisated mass of confused philosophism, of which the actual living illustration is the banker, of which you may be the lar- vated, leech-like lackey? If you can find any reason why, which is founded on justice and equality for individuals and pure, patriotic love of country, then, we will calmly, coolly and considerately discuss it with you, although we be certain to thereby incur the censure and displeasure of our friends by transgressing their injunction to avoid any communication whatsoever with evil companions. The money given or loaned to the banker at i per cent, commission, interest, that in loaning it for circulation he may collect a toll or tax from the industrious public at least twelve times the amount that government charges him for his basis of windy credit, all of which money rightfully belongs in common to the people as their me- dium of exchange and is their pieces-of-evidence or part representatives of the collective wealth and worth of the nation and its whole people, and no one, other than the delegates or organized public government, has the constitutional right to issue money, regulate its volume or charge a tax for the use thereof, Hamilton and other sophists to the contrary notwithstanding. We are told that this money is issued on bonds made of paper; it matters not if they were red-hot, flesh-burning steel chains, forged and handturned by Hooknose Rothschilds himself, 99 per cent, of the people demand and impera- tively order that no more bonds, nor chains, nor fetters, be either moulded, or forged, or delicately painted with blood-colored ink — no more for ever! We are also told that those bonds are better than gold. How is that? Paper better than gold! Come to think of it, partner, think you are right ! Shake ! The reason being the wealth behind them ! Well, that is the wealth we will put behind our paper money. But bonds are at a premium over gold because they bear interest. Well, to • - 255 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS keep our paper money from going to a premium and render them, if possible, still more stable, they must be non-interest bearing. We are also told that the banker buys these bonds made of paper with his gold, and that we ought to thank him. Well, heaven bless him and convert him to labor for a living, like all honest people should do, mingle the sweat of their brow with the heav- enly rain to assist in maturing the products of nature. Are those bonds not based in the main on the moral, intellectual and physical worth of all our people (except native born aliens), on all our accumulated property, as well as on the potential wealth of our lands, mines, woods, rivers, lakes, seacoast, etc. ? Then why not issue and circulate money on the strength of all that incalculable wealth, the same as you issue money on the indebtedness of the possessors of that wealth? The distinction that the advocates of the money power endeavor to confuse the unthinking mind with here, will not admit of the fabrication of the most gauzy, material difference. Their advocacy of bonds being because they yield an increase or profit robbed from labor, without their effort, but through the agency of a purchased, conniving govern- ment. There is scarcely a boy of fifteen now attending our public schools but who knows that there extends an iso- thermal belt from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific in length, and in breadth varies from the 46th parallel of latitude to the 40th, in places existing the full distance between, which is admirably adapted for beet culture. (For sake of more simple illustration in computing the possibilities of the culture or production of sugar we will leave out the sugar cane.) The boy also knoAvs that 2,000,000 acres grown to beets would produce over twenty tons, but take ten tons of beets to the acre, and average one and one-third tons of sugar to the acre, or a total of 2,666,000 tons of sugar, besides the syrup. The bo}^ also knows that such industry would give employ- ment to near 250,000 men for six or seven months of the year, in the sugar and other related industries, whose commodities would be necessary for its production, such as fuel, etc. 256 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS The boy is aware of the fact that the above amount I would nearly supply the present home consumption and I that 7,000,000 acres of beets would produce as much j sugar as all the sugar now produced in the world, and ! that this 7,000,000 acres is but a small fraction of our I territory adapted to beet culture. And the boy knows I that nothing stands in the way of its realization except ; the question of a fixed, certain and permanent protection j and encouragement for the industry, which it ought to j have, and must have, in order to pay the wages right- j fully 'demanded by American workmen, which wages j was, and is, always the paramount question with them ! who produce all wealth, the laborers, which politicians I can never evade, however constant and futile their at- I tempts to ignore. ! By the way, the boys says, "he read but forgets whether it was in his first reader or not, but somewhere about Napoleon; they said he is dead now, but this happened 'when he was not dead,' that 'he not only gave a bounty to beet sugar producers, but, in order to encourage it the more, still further prohibited the importation of foreign sugar' " ; and he says also that "he thinks that it was in the same profound, philosophical work that he read where that in England once it was held by the people to be a very unpatriotic and disgraceful act for a citi- zen of that ever-intermeddling island to purchase or wear any production or fabric manufacturr^d abroad, when a fair substitute could be procured of strictly Eng- lish production, and that this was her policy until she found it imperative, by all means and methods, both doubtful, deceptive and dark, to increase her population. One of those purposes was to turn the little island into a factory, so as to manufacture for the then small commercial world and receive in return breads^ufi's and other material, in a partly unfinished or crude state ; this was done in order to always have human ma-erial hand}^ for her volunteer army; for if she endeavored to recruit it by conscription, on account of her disai^ected sub- jects, and of her very small territory and proportionally large seacoast, her little island would become compara- tively depopulated in a short time, and as a nation would 257 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS vanish from our atlases, or might become a summer gar- den for some prima donna, who could sing to the lone- some, wild waves, or for some European actress, who could hoe-down the pas-du-ventre, or a hide-and-seek playground for some Prince — Countess — Coronna. All this led from the former national spirit to the necessary change from protection to free trade, so that her intermeddling, legal tender insolence in her neigh- bors' affairs should be kept at par. No later than yes- terday she gave free trade to her chief support, except India — that is, Ireland. The title of the bill as it 'passed in the House of Parliament, was : Bill No. oo. To Estab- lish Free Trade with Ireland, in All Commodities Known as Venomous Reptiles Namely, Snakes, Poisonous Toads and Irish Recruits for India. The boy wishes me to gently intimate that, owing to the large deficiency in the supply of sugar produced at home, that we are compelled to give in exchange for the required amount the assured average wheat crop of 12,- 000,000 acres, about one-half of which would have sup- plied the world in sugar if grown to sugar beets, and all of it our most fertile land, and one-sixth of it, or 2,000,- 000 acres, would have sufficed for our total consumption of sugar, and the boy says he thinks that we ought to heed his advice and go into sugar beet cultivation by the wholesale something like people who understood their own affairs at least ; we think that the boy's advice should be taken, even if we had to strain a point or two in so doing, for, as he naively remarks, "then we w-utld save the cash amount as a nation of the 8,000,000 acres of wheat yield, and then we could spend all day Sunday playing craps with it; or, oh, dear me! would not that 8,000,000 acres of fine land made a nice, level park or field to play football in" ! It is to be hoped that the remarks of the boy will be seen and heard of by many of more mature years, so that they will stop to consider and think for themselves, and not allow the ring-ridden politi- cal convention to dictate or cut out for them their future misnamed statesmen, who generally seek your suffrage only for their personal advancement, instead of you seek- ing them for the advantage of all; the great majority 258 I PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of such suffrage-begging states-prison-men belong to either of the two classes known as bulldozing blockheads or nascent or natural knaves. The remarks of the boy are not only lost on them, but would only receive a haughty sneer, for such as they always meet with mock- ery and mimicry all lofty thought, no matter from what mind it may emanate, and noble actions, no matter who may be impelled to them from pure, patriotic and price- less philanthropy. WOOL. Wool is a production of which last year we produced $65,000,000 worth and imported about $27,000,000 worth. We have 50,000,000 sheep, and nearly 2,000,000 people connected with the industry. In the year 1893 the duty was as high as eleven or twelve cents on some quali- ties of unwashed, and so on in proportion, according to grade, some higher and some lower. Now, who is going to reimburse, say, he who has invested recently in the sheep and wool industry, under the protection oi the tar- iff, for the certain loss in his investment, if the tariff is reduced, as proposed? Js it the gamblers in human life and soul? (see statistics of suicide, 90 per cent, of which destroy life and soul through sheer doubt of ever again procuring their wonted subsistence) ; the gamblers in wealth and virtue? (how many thousands forced, through stark privation, to sell their virtue or the soul in order to sustain the body) ; or is it the base, servile gamblers in American honor, who won the polluted pot known as Seyd's second deal? Under the influence of free trade the industry will wane ; then where will we put or place these people told to quit or forced into idleness? Will we arm them and put them to guard the 3,000,000 vainly hunting employ- ment, and have them see to it that the unarmed do not get employment, or importune our bank-protected pro- teges by craving work or bread? Well, well! Another idea struck us ! Can we not send them down to the Ar- gentine Republic or to Australia, where they have about 100,000,000 sheep each, and fine grass, a favorable climate. 259 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS sparse population, cheap labor (that's the keynote), and only one-half cent freight per pound to New York or Boston, while from that recreant Rocky Mountain region it costs three cents per pound to poor, old, ancient, obso- lete Boston? How does that idea strike you, old man? Think we ought to get a post office with a hole in it to deposit our mail ! The other racking question remaining to absorb the deepest attention of all thoughtful men is. What shall we do with the great sheep range when abandoned? Can we not make an enchanting enclosure of it and set it apart for the propagation of the buffalo and baptize it "The European Reserve," and strictly restrict the in- dulgence in the amusement of the chase to those only who can afford to retain a pack of bailiffs, beagles and other dogs ? Oh, would it not be enough to engender epiph- ora in our foreign guests and precipitate mental enta- sia to him who would endeavor to explain his enthusiasm at the enormity and excellence of such an enterprise, as, for instance, what an overflowing fulness of the micro- scopic-muddy soul, enough to irrigate all our beets, it would cause in the aesthetic European, that warty, with- ering "waif of a musty aristocracy, when on his hunt, not only for a buffalo, but also for a buxom, cornfed million- aire's daughter, to whose credit it must be said that she does not haggle long over the terms of sale ; it may prob- abl}^ be, though, on account of her burning desire to learn how they do it over there, or probably it may be from over-anxiety to get any at all, since, belonging in that class of unprotected, competitive commodities, for we see that nine times out of ten a tingling title and a reprobate record can have the whole of the goods, ready to pack in a moment's notice, for transportation abroad. So, indeed, he would be a callous-hearted, miserly wretch who would find fault or murmur at such a bargain, were ) he aware of the commercial fact, backed by missionary authority, that in darkest, darky Africa an ebony wife, with a good, strong ring in her nose, will bring in open '« market all the way from one and one-half cents to $ioo \ apiece ! j The same reasoning that applies to one commodity \ 260 ■ i PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS applies to all, when under or surrounded by similar con- ditions. The farmer did not ask that the duty be taken off of wool, but the manufacturer wants the duty on wool taken off, but wants the duty retained on fabrics or goods manufactured therefrom. Why do we meet those con- flicting ideas? They are prompted by the natural, avari- cious instinct of the lower animal man, and euphoniously christened personal interests. Here also we find evi- dences in full force of the discrimination in favor of the few or wealthy, as against the many or poorer classes. For the farmer who was so lucky as to have $2 to spare and invest in one sheep, or even the godmother's present to poor, little ''Mary of a lamb," could enter into the wool industry, and thereby gain a direct benefit of an existing tariff premium on home-produced wool. But it requires a large capital to enter the wool industry — that is, in its manufacture — in competition with the foreigner; conse- quently the poorer masses are barred out from entering the field where the proposed direct benefits from tariff would be received ; our politicians and capitalists are well aware of all this, hence protection on the finished product. And why should not this be so, while you keep on vot- ing for both such political scoundrels to represent you? Then you cannot murmur if you now receive the treat- ment that sooner or later all scoundrels will be rewarded with, that is, the forgetfulness and contempt of all. But is not the wool the finished product of the sheep or wool raiser, and does he not have to pay for and purchase labor and supplies, as well as those in any other branch of this industry or any other? And, further, does he not risk his capital for a whole year before receiving either pay or profit? As time enters as an important factor in connection with the consideration of the cost of wool growing, since the manufacturer of woolen goods may readily sell his product to the full amount of his capital at least three times to the sheepraiser^s once ; therefore, due allowance should be made for such conditions in adjusting the rela- tive amount of duty, protecting each division of the indus- try. It is, indeed, doubtful that a greater amount of expenditure and labor is required to produce a given 261 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS weight of average woolen fabric from clean wool at the factory than a like weight of clean wool from the sheep, as the whole railroad freight is paid in the protection price or tax set on wool by the consumer, as he pays all costs, which the manufacturer and wool raiser sim^ply ad- vances in the hope of receiving a sleek, fat interest. But, admitting that it requires more labor for weaving, etc., than for raising wool, and -allowing for every eleven cents on clean, unspun wool, that eleven cents and four- teen cents more, or a total of twenty-five cents, on the woolen, finished fabric, ready for the consumer or peddler to the consumer, the wool man no doubt would agree to, but he says, while meekly acknowledging and alarmingly recognizing his own mental inability to unravel the rid- dle, that he alone is not only puzzled, but he firmly be- lieves that all other sane, impartial men are also, by the singular query. Why protect one division of a great industry and leave the other to compete with the cheap- labor foreigner unprotected? There is no sane man, un- influenced by pecuniary, mercenary or other base consid- erations, can see the philosophy or consistency in such incongruous action, and but who, on mature reflection, would' pronounce such proposition or action as either the vapid vaporings or the apparent work of imbeciles, ignorance of the important subject, or base betrayal of common American interests. If it is right to protect the manufacturer of woolen fabrics, which requires the application of force and labor power in the operation, it is equally right to protect the wool raiser, considering the vast number who could enter it who, perforce, must apply an analogous amount of force and skill in the operation, the sheep being his machine, that must be tended properly as to quantity and quality, in order to produce the proper amount or desired result. Were it found or deemed advisable to remove some of the duty from wool on account of the unnecessary hard- ships wrought on a vast majority, of which there is no proof, and no complaints from that vast majority, it could have been reduced to, say, six cents, or one-half, and that six cents to be applied as a bounty on Ameri- can wool, which would give over four cents per pound, 262 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS as we raise only about three pounds out of every live of our total consumption and import two out of every five, to each and every producer of one pound of wool. The col- lector of internal revenue could pay this bounty to the producer direct on a warehouse receipt for so much- American produced wool, which could then be manufac- tured where raised, if desired, and thereby save freight on the wool east at least. This bounty paid direct to the wool raiser would enable him to establish woolen mills. (Oh ! Out on such rot ! For that would be pure and sound Democracy. Politician.) And suppose that with free wool American wool would sell for six, eight, twelve or, say, sixteen, cents per pound ? With this duty of six cents, it would sell for twenty-two cents, and the four c^nts of bounty to the wool raiser would bring him twenty-six cents per pound. Or, if he was compelled to freight it to Boston at three cents per pound, he would still have the American price of twenty-three cents, and the foreigner, on paying one-half cent to Boston, would only receive fifteen and one-half cents, or seven and one-half cents less than the Ameri- can. AVhile the manufacturer could buy from the Ameri- can at twenty-two cents, freight paid, or from the for- eigner at twenty-two cents, freight paid, whichever he preferred, this would keep up the price of wool and, inci- dentally, all other commodities, until the industry could supply the home consumption, when the bounty, through a gradual decrease, should be taken ofif and substituted by a prohibitory duty, as we are not intended to work for the benefit of foreigners, who support crowns or other governments, and the producer or laborer is always willing to pay an American price for anything he con- sumes when he receives a relatively commensurate rec- ompense for his labor and will power, in conjunction with the forces of nature, or his productions. And if it is of any benefit to society to have or receive $i of socie- tary fiction, that can have fully $i worth or measure of real value to back it, for eight pounds of wool, then it must be twice as beneficial to have or pay and receive $2 of legal fiction for the wool; provided that that S2 is backed by S2 worth of realty, for all economic phi- 263 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS losophers and all others agree in proclaiming that an abundance of money and high prices are most highly productive of real progressive enlightenment and happi- ness. Why, then, if this factitious and fictitious agent of society, intended to lighten the burdens of barter and to bring about a greater diversification of comforts, con- veniences and incidental associative communion, money, in abundance and its concomitant high prices are so con- ducive of such prosperity, progress and felicity, we again ask, wh}^, then, do we find well paid, public, political poltroons reducing the current prices of American com- modities by pandering to the whims of our commercially foreign competing foe ? Now who would suffer most by the duty, or by the duty and bounty combined, both at present and in the future? We are afraid that the poor Australian will be apt to get it in the neck. It is reasonable to presume that, under duty and bounty, that the wool production would in- crease, so that in not many years hence we could produce a sufficient supply for home consumption or requisition, so that for every pound that we produce now and for every pound of increase the foreigner would not get or receive a free trade price. Oh ! the free trade cullion exclaims, but we get our wool cheaper than when we - had to pay a bounty ! Then his speech is made. He looks wise and staggers to his seat. Now, my fellow citizens, it is true you got your wool for sixteen cents under free wool, and the Australian got his sixteen cents in his money, gold, for his wool. But under six cents duty and four cents bounty, which the six cents would give, you got your pound of wool for twenty-two cents, and also you got or retained your twenty-two cents in your own country, which enabled the sheep herder to buy a suit of clothes, instead of compelling him to move to the equator, there to rig him- self out in their Sunday full-dress suit of a sombrero hat and a rag on his sore toe. Of that twenty-two cents you paid for the wool j^ou paid six cents bounty or duty to the American in order to enable him to pa}^ American current prices for his supplies; if you bought it of the foreigner he only received sixteen cents, le§s the freight, 264 * PLAIN. ECONOMIC FACTS while you allowed the American to receive twenty-six cents, less freight, to encourage home industry and there- by tend to keep up the prices relatively on your own productions, which might have been turnips to feed the sheep or cotton that you exchanged with him, or hops to make beer to quench his thirst. So, if you did not pat- ronize your own sheep herder with your own money, then he would not have that money to in turn patronize you with. If we raised no wool and paid out $100,000,000 per annum for wool, most likely we would have most of the wool, but the Australian would have our money; but if we raised all we require for our own consumption, then we would have the wool and the money, too. See? (I know the light is bad and the print is small, but just step this way and I will loan you grandfather's glasses, so you can see the point!) All are agreed that the spin- ner, the weaver, the tailor, etc., should be protected. But why not labor of every calling? It is evident that the more increase there is in the world of any commodity, its measuring appraiser, money, not increasing in a relative proportion, the less general current price it will bring, the need of it remaining nor- mal, and that the marked increase of any commodity in any country, under similar conditions of non-increase of money, has a relative effect in tending to lower the price in that country, and in every other country. And except that increase of production is kept within bounds of home consumption, then the price, or such conditions, would be a matter beyond the power of regulation of any one country, but not under any other circumstances, if society should so elect or choose. Any country — this country, for instance — can establish at least once price and maintain it at which any commodity will not be sold for less, which price would be the lowest price of any country having a surplus to sell that could enter into the competition, plus the duty imposed on the importa- tion, so that if they came and gave their goods for noth- ing the duty price would still remain. Now this opens up another question, which we will not deal with here. That is. Why cannot government set a price on all its own production, which price it cannot fall below ? 265 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS In paying this duty we are stimulating home industry or production, and. instead of calling it tariff, it should be known as an act to promote industry and providing for compulsory patriotism, forcing you to aid and patronize home activity in preference to sending your shekels to strangers. Let prices go up ! Set no value on money but that already set on it by society — a legal power to cancel debts ! Money is but the stereotyped photograph of the will of a community, in everchanging, tangled meaning- words expressed, and vulgarly called law. In promoting home industry, by giving -a premium to one or more commodities, we thereby stimulate other industries rela- tively by creating an increased consumption for their wares, and also creating an increased ability to purchase for the masses, and when they are not possessed of that ability all business becomes stagnant, and it is then that the myopic merchant seeks the cause of the depression in the decrescent fascination of the accustomed smile of his salesman, who is sent, with his countenance of woe, to swell the ranks of the tramp, if he has not enough money to buy a first-class, limited ticket over the mor- phine road. So, increase your money and let prices go, if they will, to $5 per bushel for wheat — for where money is plenty all commodities are high, particularly all virtue that increases to the fourth power of the ratio of circulation per capita, and then only can human effort be moderately appreciated by idle, indolent, interest gatherings: idolators of money. Remember that money is but the illustrative, illusionary factor of man's imagination, perverted by per- nicious laws from the ideal conception of its creators, and that all the money in the world is not worth one soul hurled to suicidal damnation for the need of its proper proportion. We simply want duty enough levied on foreign com- peting commodities to allow for the difference in wages between this and foreign countries, as also a correspond- ingly proportionate difference for the capital invested. A fair increment for active capital would be, when all expenses, with fair remuneration for all actively con- nected with the enterprise, would be deducted, 10 per cent., should be allowed bv all on active capital ; that is, '266 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS if 3 per cent, would be the legal rate allowed for the use of inactive capital or money loaned by the banks or others; but one-tenth of i per cent, allowed for the use of money, other than to government for legitimate ex- penses, is social robbery, or it may be a legal robbery perpetrated on society. The question may be asked, When the home industry could supply our wants would you still keep on the duty on wool? Most assuredly! When a capitalist in any enterprise — a tailor, a weaver, a distiller or an organ grinder — is protected from competition, we propose to protect all others who may require it or demand it, and to build a protective wall so high around luxuries so that there would not be a pine in Oregon tall enough to make a ladder long enough to reach to the top, so as to compel the sophistical free trader to splice them before he could get his head over to gaze wistfully and wearily towards the rising sun, where, intently and suspiciously watch- ing each other, the only real beneficiaries of American free trade and its consequent, consistent advocates dwell. In that land made famous by poet and historian, as inor- dinately prolific of princes, paupers, pulpits, powder, pec- toral pendants and standing armies. LEAD. Before leaving the tariff question let us pry into a part of the prickly points of protection in connection with the plumbiferous industry. The smelting trusts or lead com- bines want the duty taken of¥ of lead ore, as is proposed in the new tariff bill, which is now one and one-half cents per pound. We get lead ore from Mexico, where it is mined by peon labor. The average wages of lead miners in the United States is $3 per day. The same trusts want the duty on pig lead maintained. Remember, the lead ore is the finished product of the miner and the pig lead the finished product of the .smelter. On^ pig lead the duty is two cents. On that class known as pipes, sheet, shot, etc., it is two and one-half cents. On white lead it is three cents ; but they want it all retained except on lead ore, the finished product of the miner; everyone 267 . PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS can prospect, and probably the poor man can find lead ore, but he cannot build a smelter or a white lead works, etc. See ! In calculating the proportionate or relative expense or employment of labor, or cost of production, in the differ- ent branches of the industry, all those interested in the business or conversant with the facts will easily recog- nize the approximate correctness of the following in the cost of production. Reckoning the market price of pig lead at four cents per pound, two cents of that being duty, or $80 per ton, and $40 of that being duty. On lead pipe, etc., the duty amounts to $10 more, or $50 per ton. On white lead, $20 more, or $60 per ton. Cost of production of pig lead in all of the different branches : Mining, transportation to smelter, etc., on |100 worth of pig. lead |10, or per cent Reduction to pig lead (for which the miner pays as well as freight) smelting and refininsc $30, " Transportation on pig-lead, from states west of and through which the Rocky Mountain Range runs, to Kastern lead markets 25%" ; average oftheU. S |20, Total cost of $100 worth of pig-lead to the miner when laid in Kastern market $90, " Cost of reduction of $100 worth or 2,500 lbs. of pig-lead, to sheet, shot, pipe etc $7, or per cent On every $100 worth pig-lead or 2,500 lbs. l^i cent extra duty, or profit for reduction to shot, pipe sheet, etc duty $12,50, Cost of reduction of pig-lead, $100 worth or 2,500, to white lead $9, or per cent On every $100 worth or 2,500 of pig-lead 1 cent extra duty, or profit for reduct on to white lead $25, Of this $40 duty price and of the $40 foreign price for every ton of lead, the miner receives as pay $16 and $16, respectively. The smelter, etc., receives as pay, $12 and $12, respectively; and the railroad received as profit and pay, $8 and $8, respectively, amounting in all to %y2, leaving a balance to be divided as profit for the miner and smelter of $8, or $4 4/7 for miner's profit, and $3 3/7 for smelter, etc., profit, that would be from the market 268 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS price, and of course only one-half of that as profit from the duty or duty price. Calculating that, on this basis, the duty is one-half the market price for pig lead — average price for 1892 was $4.05 — in production of $100 worth its cost was actually $90 for 2,500 pounds of pig lead, for which outlay $50 of duty was received. Or, to simplify it, for every $9 outlay $5 of duty price was received. The foreigner only re- ceives $5 out of every $10 that you pay for his lead ; the other $5 goes for the support of government. But if you buy of our miner he receives both fives ; the extra five is to stimulate the industry and enable the miner to pay you your American price for your relatively protect- ed commodities, whether they may be specially on the list or not, so that by helping your neghbor you are helping yourself by creating a market and living prices for your own production, and so on with all others. For the transformation of $100 worth of pig lead into lead pipe, sheet, shot (which lead is adulterated with a cheaper metal to give it hardness), at a cost of $7, one- half cent per lb. duty price was received on 2,500 pounds, or $12.50 duty on every $7, labor cost. For the total cost of changing $100 worth of pig lead into 2,500 pounds (and far more, for white lead is adulterated by a pulver- ized rock called baryta) of white lead $9 is expended, and one cent extra duty price is received, and not counting the adulteration on 2,500 pounds, being $25, on every labor outlay of $9. To recapitulate, in the following order : Outlay or Production. labor cost. Duty. Of pig-lead $9.00 $5.00 Shot, etc., from pig 7.00 12.50 White lead from pig 9.00 25.00 So if you cannot here see discrimination in favor of capital, as against labor, you had better consult some eminent oculist, for our parenetic advice could have no bearing in the case, as we fear that amaurosis has set in. A ton of white lead to the manufacturer costs him about $89, or four and one-fourth cents per pound, with lead at 269 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS four cents (don't speak about adulteration), and you pay all the way from six to ten cents a pound for it. The fair minded, impartial critic, whose conceptive and discerning powers are not obscured by partisan big- otry, conceit and inveterate intolerance, can plainly dis- tinguish the discrimination in the operations and provi- sions of the past, present and proposed tariff laws in favor of the possessor of accumulated capital, as against his Atlantean, though ataxic, brother. But he who in his solescistic apagoge, exposes or betrays by his apish con- tumacy his relative affinity for the other hybrid, our brec- ciated mule, virtually, although not verbally, admits in assigning his reasons for pronouncing the tariff, a meas- ure of equal benefit to all, that he is, and confesses them to be, in perfect harmony with the appropriately odd reason given by our most renowned savants, to the stag- geringly profound query. Why is it that an ass eats thistles? Not being versed in the genealogy of that gen- tle, generic race, nor- in its predilections, preferences or peculiarities, we deem ourselves wholly incompetent to give advice or recommend remedies to that particular class, and solace ourselves with the hope, that all such as' we will soon be supplanted by a generation who possess the benefits of our public schools, which place them in touch, in this age of progress, with men of broad views, liberal action and patriotic principle, and will constitute them thoroughly competent and capable of prescribing in the premises. To examine all the articles on the import tax list or tariff subject to duty would only result in a repetition of the preceding descriptions, without yielding the result of any material difference, and by briefly reciting the foregoing facts we have in open view the general work- ings of the law providing for an import toll or duty, as well as the plain, cowardly, covert intent of partiality for the rich of legislators in the enactment of such laws for the past thirty years or more. We repeat, advisedly, cowardly, covert intent, for the good reason that it Is im- possible to find a bona fide American citizen to pose for the suffrage of his fellow citizens, so as to represent them in Congress, who would be so destitute of the first rudi- 270 ; PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ments of education, reason and honesty, as to subscribe to the enactments of such unfair, partial laws ; then if it is impossible to find one such returned to Congress, it is reasonable to infer that those who voted for such meas- ures did so both knowingly and wittingly. It is not with a law providing for a levy of an import duty that fault is found, but with the inequality and discrimination of such laws, as is evidenced in all of their several opera- tons, similar in purport to those three that we have hastily examined. We find the farmer, with his hired help, left out, to rely on the cold and brittle mercies of the monopolist or capitalist, but all have but small appreciation or esti- mate of the latter's commiseration and generosity. Such commodities are hardly to be expected from the individ- ual when the example of laxity is set him by those in high places or its government in its looseness concern- ing the interests of the greater number. Can the most sickly excuse be offered for leaving the farmer out of the direct benefits of the duty on wool or sugar beets, for instance? It is not easy to conceive or even conjure up one. For the deputy internal revenue collector could attend to both accounts as well as the one, and yet have plenty of time to spare to go duck shooting, even should the country writhe in the financial, violent tortures of a blustering, banker's panic. The production of, say, 21,000 tons of beets, the aver- age product of 2,100 acres, require more labor to produce, and transport to the sugar factory than that required in their reduction, or in the extraction of their saccharine matter, and transforrnation into sugar and syrup, which latter needs the labor only of about 150 men for ninety days. Of course, in this connection we must remember that the president of such a factory or concern is no common mortal, and that, besides receiving the usual dividend on his stock, must have a salary of only $10,000 a year, for he is supposed to be a man of fine address and of such business qualifications as to enable him to easily dispose of the stock of the concern at a good price, if so desired, particularly if such a thing as its failure should be inevitable, while the manager or president of the 271 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS farm might at a rude guess reckon on $i per day, barring accidents, such as the breaking of a hamestrap or loosen- ing of a tire, which $i a day of the farmer, vv^hen contrast- ed with the candy factory president's portion, really, we must consider it a most liberal compensation, when we take into consideration the enormous amount of the strong, life-giving rays absorbed by the farmer in the many warm, summer, noonday suns, while the unfortu- nate sugar president is compelled to seek the puny, cool comfort of some artistic grape arbor and suffer the freezing agony of sucking an ice-cold mint julep through a natural straw. The farmer is aware, through the knowledge attained by his learning of his rule of three, in the moss-covered or lichen-strewn, log-house school that he attended long before, the indulging, even of speculation, in the tele- phonic, teleautographic or telepathic field, that if one- half cent per pound duty was levied on the nine pounds of sugar that we import, that it would yield four and one- half cents bounty, to be divided between him and the sugar manufacturer from beets on the one pound that they both produce, and that one-half of this, two and one- fourth, cents, would give him over $6 bounty on his ton of beets, and the manufacturer could pay over fifty cents a ton more for beets, and if the farmer had, say, $2 a ton profit on his beets when he paid $30 per month and board to his hired help, he could now pay $75 per month to his men, for he would have a profit or difference of $8.50 per ton to do it with ; that all is if the bounty on the sugar industry was paid out in a just distribution, with a view to giving most to that branch which required most labor in the operation, instead of practically supporting and upholding, by law and otherwise, the infamous idea of the inviolability of the rights of unjustly accumulated capital, as against the only sacred and just rights of the great mass of individuals who compose our nation, and who heretofore unmurmuringly bore, with pitiable igno- rance of some and the base treachery of others, of their legislators. In taking a synopsis of the many phases, in common with all the others, that the woolly question presents, 2y2 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS from our ardent desire to see the perpetuation of the even- ness and uninterruption of the course pursued by our eminent states- (prison) -men, we found ourselves forced to the unpleasant conclusion that it is not so easy to pull the wool over the eyes of our sheep raiser as the wily, conjuring, political hybrid might suppose, or as we, in our sacred interest for capital, had hoped for. AVe had nursed this hope, from our intimate knowledge of the fact that, in the estimation of competent judges, the sheep herder's position is only second on the list of gen- eral insanity, or next to that individual known as the phrenetic, pilose prospector, who persists in prodding around for that primeval, precious, pyrogenous produc- tion. But, notwithstanding his unenviable public estimation and his total incapacity for finding a full solution for the enigmatical problem furnished him by tariff the- urgists, yet, unfortunately we find him aware of the fact that he has not been fairly, justly or equitably dealt with, as he has an inalienable right to demand, in what he perversely persists in pronouncing as vicious, per- nicious and unprincipled, the past, present, and now the proposed tariff law, which works an injury to him in bringing him in direct competition with foreign peasant labor, while it proposes to protect the Eastern monopolist only, to whose inconsiderate care the welfare and allow- ance, for a bare existence, of the weaver, the spinner, etc., is left, while he ominously shakes the head, remarking that human nature will but bear a certain amount of hypocrisy, favoritism and treachery until an imperious accounting is demanded, and a fit, final and full adjudi- cation given, and an exacting payment made. He fur- ther reasons thus : We find by statistics that last year we required about 400,000,000 pounds of wool to supply the annual requisi- tion, of which we produced about five and three-fourths and imported four and one-fourths pounds out of every ten pounds consumed. Allowing thereon the average duty of twelve cents per pound and six pounds of wool to the use of every inhabitant yearly, then each one con- tributed seventy-two cents towards the encouragement 273 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of the wool industry, with a view of maintaining Ameri- can prices on all commodities; of that amount about thirty cents would be for the well known democratic de- ception of tariff for revenue only. Of course, this sub- scription not only ruined the millionaire (alas! we have none in our poor country now), but stoutly prohibited the farmer, poor fellow ! from importing enough foreign \ wool for his needs, so that he had not a sufficient amount to apply, as the doctor had prescribed, to have stuffed in. his ear to cure the ache contracted in listening to such silly doctrines as those propounded and dictated by such as whose incomes may be stated at $50,000 per annum — a sufficient amount to set their small brains a wool- gathering, and therefore peculiarly adapt them for the t' more successful and beneficial occupation of raising royal, f wanton, woolly wenches in Hon-u-r-a-lulu. (Is that the ^ way to spell it? Ta-ta!) \ If it could be found by some subtle and profound rea- J soning, deduction and method of calculation unknown i' to American philosophers and mathematicians that the tariffs on wool worked an unbearable hardship to the greater number on both plain and woven wool, and that (' such duty or tax was wholly unnecessary for the support of the government, who found thousands of millions in its Treasury that it could not apply to, or expend in, per- manent, profitable, public improvements from the fact of an unnecessary surplus of such as post offices, court houses, seacoast defenses, warships, etc., etc., it could then reduce the duty one-half on each commodity and apply the same as a bounty on the American production. But since such a policy would redound to the benefit of the American producer of all wealth, the laborer, we cannot hope for its realization very soon, knowing that such things are not in consonance with the propositions of the present, heartless, dishonest, dissolute politicians ; or, if not dishonesty, then the sheep herder wishes it dis- tinctly understood that he wants the majority of the banker-lawyer-Congressmen and Senators who have gained their seats in Congress either through misrepre- sentation or purchase to comply with a strict observance 274 I PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS for several years of one of the caprices of Mary's little lamb, and go to school, too. Indeed, we thought that we would find our sheep herder more docile and in a far more conciliatory frame of mind, but he remarked, with bitterness in his tones. Well, we, the producers of all wealth, would be content with $4 per day wages for every day's work, only, while we are aware of the fact that what each of us produces on an average amounts to $8 per day or more, while we are willing to give without a murmur $15 per day to our misnamed, misrepresenting and faithless congressional legislators, either when in or out of Congress, and why should they have $15 ? Have they got wings? And we see that, and go" it one better in allowing $137 per day to their dictatorial, bossy tutor. Who or what is he? Wonder if he ever eats any- thing, for holding the office, which any average, six- teen-year-old schoolboy or monitor in a deaf and dumb institute could fill and fulfil the duties of without incur- ring that American disease of nervousness, superinduced by overexertion of the brain, with more lasting credit to himself, and genuinely material, moral and mental benefit to the nation, than any President we have had in the office since the ever-to-be-lamented Lincoln. Well, such is life in these days of decaying and despised na- tional devotion or patriotism ! PROSPECTOR. I asked the weird, the wild, the wandering, the woolly Western wizard of the divining rod, the prospector, on his journey up the canon "Echo" what he thought of the alleged, condemned, discriminating tariff bill. With reverential, awe-inspiring eyes aglow, from whose deep and penetrating glance one felt that the innermost, deep and hidden secrets of the mountain fastnesses were to them as. Here I lay me down to sleep. Amen! He re- plied: Since the lofty, pride-inspiring, magical message received from our immortal Lincoln, "Go, tell our pros- pectors we will pay our war debt with the hidden wealth of the Rocky Mountains ; then, with giant strides in prog- ress, forge ahead as nation never did before." With this 275 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS message ever ringing in our ears, we hied ourselves to the higher altitudes, there to woo the goddess of fire and i force begotten treasures, to donate to us a mite from her , metallic stores to stay our miasmatic vultures from de- Ij manding that blood-curdling collateral, the pound of flesh, it While breathing the rarer atmosphere of our mountain peaks we found its predominant element to be the pure [ spirit of the triple love of liberty, equality and country, !' which ever purifies our mind, as its oxygen does our ll blood; and, thoroughly aware that our mission would i have long since been fulfilled, were it not for the perfidy [ of the presumptive and self-forcing politicians, who de- spoiled the nation of one-half its money at the instance and dictation of the wealth, bribing, byssoid, budlet barons, thereby increasing threefold the obligations of the nation, and allied with that war and peace, ever- implacable enemy of American prosperity, the banker, who uses the tariff as a cold deck to allay suspicion on his other bunco games, and also aware of the burlesque imitations of a people's progressive Presidents, 3^ou were at divers times cajoled into foisting upon us, for whom we have entertained nothing but a pity bordering on 1 loathsomeness. Now, we have resolved never to wend out way to the lowlands of the Potomac, to deliver our happy, joyful answer to that loving, loyal, parental mes- sage, until you find for us another Lincoln to greet us there, and >i< * >i< j heard no more Here an ambient bevy of ptarmigan, with spotless, white plumage, as clear, as bright, as pure as white, as the sun-glared, dazzling snow around us, alighted directly in our front, from whose intent observation of my inveighing visitor, we became at once impressed with the belief that to him they bore the message that he was sought to speak on top of Elbert's peak, with the hovering spirit of the immortal Lincoln. And, on disengaging our eyes from the birds, we could nowhere behold our evanescent pros- pector ; he had vanished ! To this day we know not where. Now, feeling fascinatingly interested, with an uncontrollable determination we at once proceeded to unravel this midwinter, midday dream, or further inter- rogate a possible wayfaring waif from that all-mysterious 276 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS beyond — a rather chilling, lofty undertaking, with the thermometer marking 20 degrees below zero, and at an elevation of 11,000 feet. He could not have proceeded, unseen, down the steep gorge, of which from our posi- tion we commanded a full and sweeping view; we now proceeded rapidly, on Norwegian shoes, up the narrow gulch, whose rocky, precipitous sides were almost wholly visible to our eager, scouting scan, but nowhere could be seen the king-errant of the divining rod. Now mag- netically fearful lest he in perilous danger might be placed by an inadvertent step, with peculiar anguish in our tones, we involuntarily screamed out: Oh, Phoenix! For God's sake, tell us where you are ! If in danger, tell us where you are, and we will come! Have courage, for we are near! But to our imploring appeal there was no response, save through her saturnalia we heard the mys- tical, mocking monody of "Echo" answering: "Have courage, for we are near!" He was gone — but we re- turned. MINER. A few\days later than the one on which our volatile visitor had winged his way to his peri-peaks we met with a miner, who, by the way, we find on rare occa- sions to be generated from the former, whom we asked what he thought of the proposed tariff bill. Closely scanning us with unmistakable anger in his every glance, he said: Why mention tariff to a Westerner? How do you expect that he can maintain his mental equilibrium at the mere mention of the name? How can he refrain from calling down the most withering, blighting curses on the heads of those Republicans and Democrats responsi- ble for the economic legislation of the past thirty years, who, both singly and collectively, have been the direct cause of reducing the price of an ounce of silver from $1.30 to sixty cents ; who would dare fly in the face of Omnipotence and tell you that, by their esoteric astute- ness, they had abstracted from all silver the most of its intrinsic attributes, and who have abetted grim death in snatching starved babes from off the bosoms of their frantically bemoaning, emaciated mothers? 277 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Who have blighted the hopes and blasted the lives of countless thousands of freemen, those of which, unable tOj brave out the terrible mental and physical suffering and national disgrace, calling loudly to the Most High fori vengeance, embraced to them the only alternative — that awful blank, that shuddering alkahest for hungered insanity, a suicide's grave ! Those remaining left to aimlessly roam the country, like the wolves of the woods or the buzzards of the broad expanse, seeking what by chance they may devour, and forcingly transforming American freemen into slaves, the Christian into atheist, the psalm- j odist into blasphemer, the righteous into thief, the virtu- I ous into lethal prostitute, until our fair country swarms with demireps, hoboes, thieves and holdups, who were j but yester-yule law-abiding, industrious, honest, virtuous,! patriotic, free American citizens. Now free to starve, j shunned by all and impellingly directed, as the leprous j outcast, to the Potter's field! Oh, spirits of Jackson, : Jefferson and Lincoln, whither are we drifting? Can j you not intercede for our national salvation? Oh, where are our patriots ? Where are our statesmen ? Where are our Americans? How dare the poltroons sully thy mem- ory by pressing your names through the polluted lips of those who, by their grinning, mocking lips, committed the most heinous crime that men or nation could, which was forestalled, pointed out and previously condemned by the immortal Lincoln ; which ineffaceable condemna- tion will be as durable as his memory, eternal in the minds of all lovers of liberty! Ah ! Yes, Lincoln ! How well I remember him, and how I pardonably feared that he did not comprehend things in general as I did then. Yes, he entered on his then onerous duties — well, not knowing much m.ore than one thousand times that of our present President now, but his tower of strength was his immutable character- istic of American commonalty, and his insatiable desire to learn. He listed not to the incessant, flatulent babble around him, and flattery he planted below zero ; ever at- tentive to the wishes and even hopes, the fears and even presentiments of his people, which, it seemed, were ever wafted to him on ultramundane wings, as if by an occult 278 1 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I telephone, for to him the merest whisper was as a tome ! of lore. All this from his intimate knowledge of things j and their forces, and men and their ways. Yes, he who j was the physician of the nation, who instinctively felt i every pulse-throb of those excited, feverish bodies North i and South, for had he been a Southerner, he would have ; been an admirable rebel, but that accidental fate that I planted him North peremptorily called him to that post i which he forever honored by his merit, worth and patriot- ! ism, long before he was immolated as a sacrifice to peace. \ He who saw and felt the tangible and palpable forces of nature, frame men's souls, and in the very existence of things saw the essential incongruity of the mental cosmo- rama of all our people ; to him those things, remaining unwritten ever, were unalterable law. Yes, I often think I see him yet, with one hand on the helm, safely steering the .great ship through seemingly interminable rocks and shoals, and the turbulent, chopping waves of a cruel, internecine war. The other hand, lashing the pen, form- ing mute, scriptory fragments of his spotless, inner soul, to be scattered to ever}- compass point, bearing messages of sincere encouragement and love to all his people, particularly to that pillar on which the globe reposes, and whose aid nations beseech in danger, the masses; ever toiling with, ever battling with, ever subduing of, ever fructifying all the elements, that the great majority may barely exist while the small minority revel in luxuri- ous licentiousness. Yes, he knew them all. He calmly bore, with grasp- ing, griping, grovelling, greed, for goading, gory gain of the Eastern money-monger, with his plutonic sneer^ when asked to help with his money in quieting the Rebel- lion, and sardonic grin at the tortures endured by our people, both mentally and physically, from the curse of a mighty family feud, spurred on by the ever-g^lutinous, golden ghoul, tickled by his hopes of compelling us to give him any price he might demand for his gold, and, like the skulking coward that he was, he hung to the rear, there to find a substitute, some of whom are not yet paid. But he graciously condoned all that, when the masses made the forfeit of all they possessed and 279 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS flocked to his standard, there to famish and to fight for home, country and the Union, to receive in recompense the undying gratitude of all true Americans, Lincoln's glorious, redeeming, Union-preserving forty-cent green- back, and now the ferine, famishing forgetfulness of the fickle and the false, and the scabrous, scorning slurs of the scumy, scurvy, servile scullions, the Southern Smiths. Yes, he bore with fortitude the knowledge that the frail, frothy, frutescent, elated. Eastern egotist ever nursed his doubts of any victory for the noble, good and true, and ever with his natural hoarding bent, chicken heart, sparrow brain and microscopic soul, met with wrathful execration all actions and ideas tending to human progress and universal equity. But at all this, for them a commiserating smile played upon his placid fea- tures, whenever his thoughts reverted West. For there he knew were all the possibilities to expand to illim- itable greatness, and so perpetuate his supreme, ideal Republic, the magnitude of which but few have yet con- ceived. He knew that the children of the West, in con- stant contact with the vivid illustrations of the forces of nature, in all their sublime splendor, would in simili- tude, become imbued with ideas as clear as the mountain atmosphere; with views as broad as their great expanse, from the broiling tropics to the archetypal, icebound Arc- tic; with patriotic promptings as straight, erect and im- movable as their vertical, gigantic, towering cliffs, and with liberality as generous and true as their innumer- able millions of pure, multiform crystals. He knew that no task was too enormous or Herculean to daunt the courage, energy and enterprise of the Westerners, and that when they made it possible for the locomotive to pass over and through those dizzy walls of solid rock, and thus draw the fuel treasures of the plains to place in the frost-chilled lap of the goddess of the peaks, to appease her anger for the desecration of their internal depths, then, and not till then, the effeminate Eastern nabob, on pleasure bound, might, in palace car ensconced, pass that way; and thus, beholding nature's wondrous vastness, as here in part displayed, get his narrow vision widened, his views expanded, his nature 280 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS warmed, liberality germinated, and for future progress his fears dispelled. Yes, I think I see him now as I once saw him when, with my regiment, on our way to the front, in passing through Washington and nearing that old, historic bridge which laid in our path to the South. Yielding to custom and in company with our general, he took his position to review us. The sight of him inflamed the hearts of the most stoical veteran or stolid recruit with consecrat- ing, patriotic fire! As there, with calm demeanor, col- lected thoughts and hopeful calculations, he stood, with head erect and by hat uncovered, as though, without im- pediment, to allow the mind's eye to more closely pass in review. The slaughtered battalions now mouldering be- neath the turf, to fertilize the soil of freedom ! The lengthy rows of casks of human blood to re-dye the Crim- son Charter of individual liberty, fallibly fabricated the century before at Valley Forge ! The legions of distract- ed parents, relatives and friends, grieving for the loved ones already slain! And now, advancing forward, just coming into view, that bereaving rear, ever certain to receive his especial solicitude and parental care, formed by regiments of weeping widows, and their osculant or- phans, to them frantically clinging, as if to foil fate, should it demand the sacrifice of mother, too ! All — all this to reassert in orotund tones that supreme edict: The Liberty and Omniparity of Man ! Yes, I Here the train I awaited slowed up in front of the platform on which we were standing, surrounded by an alternating good-natured, silent-sighing, tear-dropping, applauding crowd. By the din made by the crashing of baggage, the rumble of trucks on a hollow, wooden plat- form, the tinkle and jingle of chinaware at dinner time, and the heinous snorting of the ungrateful locomotive that now tore itself loose from its other wheeled com- panions and, like all monsters, went off alone to take a drink, making it impossible to distinctly understand what our mollient, mining mountaineer was saying, so we moved to a spot on the platform opposite the end of the rear car. While on our way there, becoming fearful lest I find myself compelled to depart without finding out 281 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS how my fervid, forceful, fluent friend felt in regard to the proposed tariff bill, and knowing that he had been so enrapt in the now but contingent theme of the dis- course, I timidly and hesitatingly ventured the remark, ''Would not the miners of the West, with their prover- bial, true, American magnanimity, forgive a great num- ber of demirep faults if they should now place a heavy duty on lead and lead ores?" Intently surveying me with an unmistakable contempt in the expression of his eyes for the idea, with a search for any betrayal of an insincerity in my countenance, mingled with that certain indicative look of his doubt- fulness of my sanity and with an impleading negative- ness in his tone, he replied: ''No sir!" When nine years ago, not having given these subjects the attention I should have, in desperation I sought anything for a change and voted the national Democratic ticket. Ah ! well I remem- ber how few were the voices heard clamoring for the im- perative demands and just rights of the toilers ! When again, over five years ago, then, having a shred of faith left in the Republican party and promises, like the drown- ing man, I grabbed the straw and placed it in the Repub- lican box. Result, the duty of two cents on lead, one- half cent more on shot, etc., and one cent more on white lead, which mqans an expenditure of $9 for labor in produc- ing 250 pounds of lead at two cents duty per pound, the enhancement by duty on that amount is about $5. The same expenditure, $9, in producing sheet, pipe or shot from pig lead of about 3,300 pounds at one-half cent per pound, makes a tariff price of $16.50. The $9 expended for labor in producing 2,500 pounds white lead from pig lead (white lead is generally adulterated as follows : One-half white lead, with one-half pulverized rock, called barite, or heavy spar; this mixture is known as Venice, white ; two parts barite, with one part white lead is called Hamburg white; another, three parts barite and one part white lead ; this is called Dutch white. The rock is about four and one-half times as heavy as water, and in volume consists of about sixty-six parts barium and thirty-four parts sulphur trioxide), at one cent per pound makes a duty price of $25. Or for the shot manufacturer 282 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS about three and one-third times that of the miner, and for the white lead manufacturer five times that of the duty benefit, or price, of the miner. Why this discrim- ination? Is it because anyone can enter mining on a small scale, whether capitalist or laborer, and thereby get direct benefit from the tariff duty on lead? But not so in the manufacture of shot or white lead, capital being a requisite it must be favored. This is not the case with the miner alone, but in every instance where law affects production, distribution or accumulation, as well as in the tariff. The capitalist is sacredly protected by law, and in his methodical and periodical reduction of rations to his workmen he is backed by the troops of the state, while the laborer is blasphemously free to take what he gets, hear what is said and slink, for, in political, Pinkerton, pander parlance, "he belongs to the rabble, anyway," every day in the year, with the bare exception of election day. No, sir! Never will we forgive he who henceforward suffers to be known as Republican or Democrat and would essay to defend the legislation on ecumenical econ- omy enacted since the days of Lincoln ; no, not even until the third generation in the flesh, no matter how profuse their penitential vows or protestations. No, he who would barter patriotism for pelf or patronage and then offer the insulting excuse, it was done under that orally formed shadow of party and yet remain a party to still deaden by poisonous plans the power that made pos- sible his position. Would the word traitor qualify him ? No, for a traitor, a novice in the art, would flee on the detection of his crime, in hopes to avoid its just punish- ment, so they must be qualified as hardened, contempti- ble, criminal traitors. How can we vote for the demirep parties, both of whom are calling to their aid and making use of every device known to Satan to lower our wages and reduce us to the level, or below that, of our fellow creatures in king, church and army ridden Europe? How can we continue voting for them and so forfeit that one great remnant of really inestimable wealth we yet possess, liberty? How could we vote for them3 to thereby stultify 283 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the memories of our ancestors, who were compelled to bend their thoughts, bow their heads, and forcedly con- tribute to church and state, as now with the established church, or Christ by enactment of England, etc. Those ancestors who were forced to donate doucer, salute the debauchee, unhat to the harlot and cry out to the profli- gate, O, my master! O, my lord! O, my king! If such a one to vote can be found in me who would vote for either of them, I pray that to my palsied eyes may the sun shine in sections, and the stars in an arc, woven by warp and woof in bars of fitful fire shine ! May the earth heave to my every step! May my hand and arm, as I raise it to cast such a vote, wither and, paralyzed, fall by my side, so that the curs of the street mistake it for dog- meat ! May all virtue seem vice and all vice seem virtue to mine eyes until I become such nuisance that the pub- lic scavenger will heave me into his cart and dump me at that institution, in charity and philanthropy supported and erected by the wealth producers for all of my class — the asylum for the insane ! How could we vote for them? A-1-l-a-board ! It was our conductor's stentorian order; I knew it quite well. I must jump on the rear platform or again be left in the dell. Just as my miner friend was becoming warmed to his subject, and, to use a phrase in common parlance, "was getting there with both feet," I took tny, or rather sprang into, position on the back platform of the rear cars, and as I waved my handkerchief in answer to the cheer with which the crowd saluted me ofif, through moistened eyes I beheld my miner friend shade his eyes with hat and move to seek some secluded spot to, as I supposed, mourn over the terrible thought of man's inhu- manity to man ! A curve in- the roadbed and my pano- rama was cut off from view, and as I entered the car, with sincere, profound regret, I involuntarily remembered that I was heading east. 284 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART VII. TAXES INTERNAL REVENUE. Internal revenue : how levied. — Consumer pays this home tax also. — Mendicant and millionaire. — The caprid angel. — Hosanna of the hypocrite. — To be a farmer. — Tobacco manufacturer. — Chary chem- ist. — Pathetic parent and syncretic son. — Shameful divergence of in- dividual recompense. — Circulate the $600,000,000 among the raillions. — Remove the duty on tobacco. — Whiskey tax. — Rush the growler. — The Prohibitionist. — Oh ! Fie ! Pugh ! — Open the floodgates of whis- key. — Double the bet on the new whiskey regulation. — Shed or shelve the saloon. — Basket of chips. — Look around. — Upward. — Onward. — Who would oppose. — Divide the $900,000,000 among the millions. — Tariff for revenue only. — Statistics of crime in free whiskey period and now. — Millionaire pays taxes. — So does the hon. hobo. — Taxes should be paid on what each consumes without any discrimination. — The banker pays but a fractional part. — Income tax. — Apodictic axiom. — Labor's burden. — Let the drunkard educate his children and support indigent parents. — Syntetic cynic. The second government tax is known generally as internal revenue — that is, within the nation, home, inside or internal income for the support in part of the govern- ment. Levied principally on distilled and fermented liquors ; its manufacturers, dealers or retailers ; on to- bacco and cigars; proprietary or patent medicines, etc., etc. The principal part of the government income being collected from the sale of internal revenue stamps (like postage stamps, to some extent), which each original package must bear or have attached ahesively, according to the quantity contained in the package, and also ac- cording to the amount assessed or imposed by law against the different commodities. The manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer or retailer pays this duty, tax or impost and license direct to the collector or his deputy, in pay- ing their license and by the purchase of the prescribed stamps to be adhered to each designated package, which payment they add to the cost price of the articles before selling and without having any reference to their margin for profit, except by an extra allowance added to that margin by way of interest on the monev paid or ad- 285 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS vanced for the stamps, which payment in many cases occurs long hefore a sale of the goods is effected. This internal tax is paid by the consumer, so that he who consumes, most of the taxed articles pays most to the support of the government, regardless of what property he ma}^ possess, or his income or financial standing. So that the laborer, with half a dozen children, in purchas- ing for the sick child a bottle of patent medicine, pays as much of this duty, which is a direct expense on him, as it does not enable the manufacturer to increase his wages by the increase in the selling price of it, as does the millionaire for a similar bottle for his dear, little cherub, whose fate so far has not been so rosy, as it came into the cold world stark naked, and screaming with the cold and rough usage for one of its tender 5'^ears, poor, dear, little angel, most likely banished to drink the milk of life from a strange, unfeeling font, in the humping, holy hope of retarding the lines of nature from playfully sporting around poor, saintly mamma's coquet- tish eyes. If he uses tobacco, in order to divert the mind from pondering over the injuries wrought him and against his peace of mind and well-being, from the politi- cal-ward-bumming-heeler, up to he who rules the roost, he pays eight cents a pound for it, even if it is only the common shoestring of the backwoods, the same amount as is paid by Cholly for his ''select perique," of this home tax. If he indulges on Sunday in a two-for-a-nickle cigar, he pays as much of this tax as does the anglo- maniac, in scooting around the bay in his $50,000 inter- matra wrapper $1 cigar. Some of the best medical authorities admit — and even claim — that tobacco now is among the necessaries of life; but it is not our province to here discuss such claim. But, nevertheless, we believe it; we use it moderately and will confess that we would yield our chance of becom- ing Sultan of Turkey sooner than yield the solace we find in tobacco. We believe that the use of tobacco is not such an immoderate luxury as the liveried coach and footman, internal revenue untaxed caparisoned steed and superb landau, immovably remaining outside the No Admittance-except-well-heeled, fashionable church on 286 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Sunday, while the owner within is divining to himself how much admiration and confidence he will gain from those of the crowd not as well up as he, but yet, like the moth, will dabble in futures. And the preacher is divining for himself how he will cinch the future-man at the near, fast approaching, happy future auction sale of pews. It may be that the two-for-a-nickler, just then sitting outside the country store on an inverted, empty barrel, puffing away at his stogie — if he is at all fairly versed in capnomancy, he can plainly read in the smoke that if both divinators be saved from experiencing a sole- rending mistake in their divined speculations for the future that he, the caprid angel, by his wilful, worldly ways, in working with a will, whether warm, wet or windy weather — will with his wages pay for all the wool plucked from the lamb or wrung from the worshippers. Or it may be that he may hear, reverberating yet through the valley, on the mountaintop by the seashore, or even on very rare occasions and at very widely sepa- rated intervals at the temple, the Voice of Christ preach- ing patience to the fisherman, the laborers in the vine- yard, etc., or consoling them with the judgment pro- nounced: Blessed are the poor, the lowly and the meek, for they have been most foully dealt with, by their cun- ning, designing brother, who has lately been hustled from the temple. Or he may hear that Voice, conversely con- trasting the chances of those that hunger because they have been despoiled of their just due, with those over- fed, rich, cool, calculating, corruscating coterie of the cas- tellated, captivating, corymbiated church, mocking the hid- eous hovel of the hungry, huddling hordes of haggard, hapless humanity, while within their hearing is halloed the Hosanna of the hypocrite. Or he may hear, still re- sounding, that apposite, apostolic, comparison and com- mand; of the fastigiated, faithful Philip in the streets of Jericho, to that symbol of our pithy, pointed, puffy, pun- ning, polished preachers of patriarchal parataxis ; the individual who demanded of Philip due fraternal recog- nition and a just appreciation of his religious merits. "AVhy dost thou tempt the servant of the Lord? Get thee hence ! Thou second born of the devil !" 287 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS TOBACCO. The farmer who raises tobacco on a small scale is virtu- ally prohibited against manufacturing it by the process known as red tape and otherwise, that horror of the un- sophisticated. Should he wish to manufacture loo or 1,000 pounds, he must keep a manufacturer's account or report book, and when all the fantastic requirements are complied with he must furnish a bond, with good and sufficient security, in the sum of $2,000, almost impos- sible for him to procure, which the collector can accept or reject at pleasure; he must establish a separate fac- tory; have printed and erected a conspicuous factory , sign, purchase sufficient revenue stamps in sufficient fc quantity, and designated price, for each package of one pound or less. He then may manufacture fifty pounds or more, but which must be previously legally accounted \ for, and by duly registering as retailer of tobacco he may sell a pound to his neighbor, mayhap, to be paid in railsplitting, without white or red tape measurement, but \ average panel length. There are other intricate prob- f lems connected with the manufacture and sale of tobacco and cigars, but we have enumerated enough so that anyone can deduce therefrom some covert connivance by politicians, or can it be ignorance, in favor of capital, as I against comparative poverty? (■ We all know that the average American leaf tobacco I' brings no more than ten cents per pound to the producer. I' Now, allowing eight cents internal revenue, ten cents first or cost price, one cent collection, one cent distribu- ) tion, two cents manufacturing; total cost to manufac- f turer for leaving it within consumers' reach, twenty-two ' cents. Common, average tobacco costs fifty cents per j pound retail and about forty-five cents wholesale. So we f see that the American son pays fifty cents for what grew [ on his father's farm, out of which his father received, t-o \ pay the interest on his mortgage, ten cents; bis Uu'-le | Sam, eight cents; railroad, two cents; his laboring broth- | ers and sisters, two cents, and that distinguished gentle- ■ man, whose acquaintance he formed in perusing the soci- ^ ety columns of the select, apish, mopish 400^ — the capital- PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ist — who receives twenty-three cents. Oh, what an anser- ine action we anticipate ! In peering through some pri- j vate porthole, at the pathetic, patient, plodding parent I and his sympathetic, syncretic son, voting to perpetuate I their silly, shadowy shibboleths. Protective tariff for i capital only, and tariff for revenue only, which, when ' analyzed yields but two constituent elements, known to I the chary chemist as : All taxes paid by the consumer I only, and all profits made by the monopolist only. Yes, I voting for the inviolable rights and freedom of capital I from taxes, with their miserable exception of individual j consumption in common with the most indigent itinerant. I If tobacco is a noxious luxury, why not prohibit its I production, manufacture, importation and sale? For it I would be a crime against humanity to admit it, and if it I is a soothing comfort, take away all restriction and re- straint from its production, manufacture and sale, and thereby fosteringly and freely promote another American industry, as well as send it a-swimming with a spirited stimulus by placing a sufficient duty on patriotically j injurious, luxurious, foreign tobacco to equal that now existing and also all the revenue on the home proauc- I tion, with a view of enhancing the price whicli the farmer receives, and by dividing the legitimate profits to be derived from its production among the now virtually unprotected millions, instead of the favored hundreds who monopolize the business, which would allow every producer to enter into an honest competition. The many are willing that he should receive twice the present price he now does for his leaf tobacco, thereby enabling him to pay at least twice the present wages, which he would be compelled to pay, for the reason of the impossibility of a combine of so many thousands, so widely scattered and so differently circumstanced as are those now engaged in its production, v^hich would have a tendency to divide the wealth of the nation, as well as its representing ghost, money, among the many, which would have an apo- i dictic tendency to preserve our institutions. j Under the law, as it now exists, v^hat shameful dis- I crepancies, as regards individual recompense are discerni- i ble to the most insipid, sinistrous sycophant? We pay, i 289 i I L ■ _„ „._. ._.. .._. PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS six days in every week $5 per day (none to much) to the deputy internal revenue collector, that useful, bum- bullying-herder at the polls, while the average tobacco raiser, with his years of unremitting labor and its small remunerating fruits, all invested in his farm, who, indeed, [ has resplendent reason to rejoice and immolate a thanks- giving-aged drake and ancient rooster, if his annual in- come will sum up the enormous income of $20 per month for the farm, him and all his chicks, while we know that all his children from eight years up are self-supporting were it only in their worming of tobacco. 1 While offering the foregoing suggestions, we are not f forgetful of the fact that anything that would, revert to I the benefit of the greater number is not in line with the ' policy pursued by the demirep parties, now or for the past thirty years — the Rep. party in favor of protection to capital only, and the Demi- party to trusts and com- bines, death, on paper only. For here in this, as well • as ^ in other industries, the opportunity is and was open to ; them to remove all tax, restriction and restraint from an American industry ; and instead of the $600,000,000 annu- ally expended for tobacco, of which the American pro- ) ducer receives less than $60,000,000, the government ! about $100,000,000 for internal revenue and tariff duty, 1 railroad or collection and distribution $15,000,000, labor; $55,000,000, all told, or a total for government and pro- j ducer, labor and railroad of $270,000,000, with tariff duty ; included, and allowing $60,000,000 for ad valorem foreign | tobacco, would leave $270,000,000 for the idle, indolent | capitalist or monopolist to conjure, in cahoots by giving! an odd cheroot to the windy politician and seeing the I treasurers of the national political executive committees, j The full repeal of the present law, and consequent re- mQval of all tax or restraint, would redound to the benefit ! of all those commonly and directly concerned in its pro- 1 duction and consumption, for it would leave it at one- I half its present price to the truly loyal consumer, and ' at least double the remuneration for the producer, and ; double all wages paid to those laborers, who then could j become individual manufacturers, as a capital then of $5 would be sufficient to start a cigarmaker up in busi- 290 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ness, and, allowing double price and wages, would yet leave a large surplus for other methods of manufactur- j ing. i If the revenue was needed for the support of govern- j ment to the present import duty, the amount of the i present internal revenue could be added in their puffy, ; proposed tariff for revenue only. And should a deficit I be anticipated, offset it by an equitable, graduated income I tax, and here at least show proof by this one atomic illus- tration of their interest in the just welfare of the masses, for whose benefit we might suspect that they laid awake o' nights designing plans for bettering the condition of the farmers, the laborers, and all active or real producers and distributors, were it not that we ran across a copy of one of their chief New York organs, and there found a practical illustration of the estimation that their readers are held in, or set at, by the chief exponents of demi pro- posed intentions and appreciation, the chief principle of their objects being the Jew-peddling, cheap-John jewelry to their easily hoodwinked, fascinated prey. Against the free, the untrammeled, and the unhedged manufacture and sale of this production, now intently surrounded by ambiguous, verbose, awe-inspiring, Uncle Sam laws, it cannot be adduced, by way of excuse, that its manufac- ture cannot be entered into promiscuously or by anyone, for it is a well-known fact that neither adept expert- ness, nor subtile skill is a peremptory requisite, nor the present intrinsic qualities cannot be altered, except fanci- fully, by a mixture of different grades, and an aroma given by steeping or spraying tobacco in or with a solu- tion of aromatic drugs ; but the greater number of its producers and consumers care not for fumes or flavor, but for firm, famed fact arid fair, fellow fealty instead, and the festal opportunity to pass their dreary winters in re- munerative, repletive and recreating occupation, if not reciprocal. WHISKEY. The tax imposed on whisky in its manufactiire and sale has had similar results in its operation as the tax on tobacco in building up and maintaining gigantic trusts 29T PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and combines or the aggregation of capital in the hands of the few, instead of diffusing the Hfe blood of the nations towards an equal distribution, through its numberless, little veins, giving that healthful circulation indispensable for the sanity of either individual or national body.: All suggested provisions pertaining to tobacco apply toj whisky with equal force. If it is an insanity and death ij dealing agent, prohibit it ! But, since it is evident that our government always judged otherwise, by the fact of! selecting it as a fit subject for taxation, through the cer- tainty of its distillation and sale, and the further fact of regulating and licensing its production and sale, yet!, failed to regulate its individual consumption, which would j^ and could be more easily accomplished than its prohibi-i) tion, notwithstanding the fanatic zeal of its illiberal, un reasoning, sophistical advocates, whose euphoniously , erotic and engagingly persuasive intentions and philan- thropy are only skin or pocket deep, and who rarely real- ize, with what admirable alacrity and feelings full of hopeful serenity, through that overcrowded, redolent, ple- thoric ant-metropolis, the laborer's wife, with her lord's bright and shining, metallic lunch casket, will wend her way to her, on the most joyful errand of the day, to that rejuvenating font, the ale pump tap, or to use her own parlance, with dad's dinner bucket, "rush the growler," in the Tenth Ward ; for a dim.e's worth of that elixir of life, in order to relax with it the overtaxed mus- cles of the body and the brain. Our chanting choristers of chronic charity rarely real- ize or recognize what a pathetic position they occupy when pinching every penny in order to have their names emblazoned high up on the list of erratic cranks, who sub- scribe to foreien missions, while the objects of their silly solicitude hold them in righteous, profound pity and withering contempt for their self-laudation and presumed supercilious superiority, as, for instance, the Buddha or Buddhist, Avhose run of religion and civilization, during its history of all those centuries, is not once stained with the spilling of blood or sacrifice of human being, in order to gain the favor of their god of pride, arrogance and dictation; yet our clattering Christians will compla- 292 i j PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS cently compile moral codes, church dress designs, shade ' and street etiquette, describe the place for poor and desig- ! nate the distance for them, prescribe and regulate the \ food and drink, as though, by. chanting a corticose chorus, j they' had produced it all, and, prompted by vulgar, fellow ; feeling, had donated it to those not thus provided with I the power to procure a pitiable part; while they were I never known to make a self-sacrifice of their puffed-up j pride or expend one word of common justice in the favor [ of their down-trodden, capital-ridden, tax-eaten, police- clubbed, dog-hunted, judge-jailed, vermin-covered, in- sane asylum caged brethren and sisters in Christ. What would the Buddhist say if told this? Oh, fie! Pugh! Out on such religion ! Those chanting, easily satisfied reformers, whose pre- scriptive, superficial forms for the individual inner con- sciousness, may be shocked at the suggestion, we here now advise real reformers, that they should labor for its consummation. Open the floodgates of whisky and let it, unconfined by proscription, revenue, restraint or restric- tion, flow freely over our land at one-fifth the price to our poor consumers, it now costs, in hopes that it may painlessly and tenderly float in rivers of euthanasia, to the ocean of eternity, the unfortunate, wercked drift- wood of our conniving, so-called. Christian, civilizing cupidity. Or, do you presume to have found a better way of doing things than God the Father did, according to your Biblical account of His making and leaving man a free agent? But, in this connection, that old man Adam did eat the fruit. Why? Oh, just because it was forbid- den ! Now we will stake — although we are not a shining sport — either of our reputations you choose, the one for poverty, dishonor, dishonesty and doltishness, or, since we do not care for trifles, that one for wealth, honor, honesty and perspicuous philosophy. That the least possible restrictive impositions placed thereon, that the least possible harm will be incurred by society and the soul, from its bibbing, and we will double the bet, that it will only be a comfort, a boon and a blessing to the weary worker when his toilsome day is ended, and a direct source of revenue to the greater number, 293 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS if the following slight regulation is inserted in the law and enforced. That is, when all tax, duty or impost whatever on the American production is removed from its manufac- ture, distillation and sale, to enact a law providing a penalty of fine and imprisonment for a term of no less than five I years, for anyone selling liquors, except by measure, or al- I lowing anyone, or individuals, to assemble, congregate or re- I main on the premises where sold, or any other public or j private habitual resort where liquor may be considered one of the attractions or dispensations, or in other words, rele- gate the public resort known as saloon, barroom, bar, etc., to the cobweb covered archives of the ferocious, lion-pit arena. It is ever with man and his coadjutrix, as we find it in the simple, silly, singular story of Adam, that whatever is re- stricted or forbidden in which they can personally par- ticipate or share its enjoyments or partake of its bane, balm or benefits, the temptation to them to partake increases in brilliancy and seductive charms, as the prescribed penalty or imposition rises in the scale of severity. With what sweet sensitiyeness and heart-swelling satisfaction that each one enjoys, the secret transgression and strictly forbidden, and forcefully condemned action of whatever nature, and what elegant elation at their own acuteness in deceiving that public prying eye, or cheating that promulgated public politic mandate. And why not? For sometimes with most of us churchgoers, while loudly proclaiming our most impregnable professions of faith in the most strict and severe moral and religious codes, of the most taut and furious consciences, yet how we will secretly chuckle at our perspicacious business propensities and presentiments, in proving our premises as to the best paying property, and smile all over, like the pro- verbial basket of chips at the promptitude with which we re- ceive our rents for the saloon and the bawdy house, without allowing to enter our narrow, proscriptive conscience one pang of self renunciation, regret or remorse. And why not? Let him who is without transgression, or immoderate in- dulgence, cast the first stone. Look around! Upward! On- ward! Widen your narrow vision! Broaden and brighten your circumscriptive and . sombre views ! Cease preaching theological conundrums and practice some of the faith o 294 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the brotherhood of man that is within you, and cease your fruitless efforts to stifle it. So that next year it cannot be re- corded against you in heaven, as it was in 1893, the immola- tion on the altar of lust and greed for gain and foul flattery.* of 235 of our brethren in Christ. Oh, could there be found among us, a lying hypocrite, w'ho' would ascribe as the sole cause of such action their intemperate indulgence in whiskey as one demijohn could never do that, he should be elected at least to the position of second-class stoker in pit 13, that is the most central pit in Hades. Our personal opinion in the matter is that such a berth would not indeed be any better than he really deserves, for all through life we always enter- tained the highest admiration for such daringly courageous heroes as him. If yo'u stop the congregating of people in saloons, theatres, etc., where liquors are sold, or stop the sale of liquor to be drank on the premises, you will accomplish more reform, from the abuse of liquor in one year, than could be done in a century by prohibition pure and simple. It is to be ex- pected that the whiskey interests, viz., trusts, combines, corporations, individual distillers, wholesale dealers, and that great horde of mistaken, misguided, misplaced philantropists who are ever ready tO' allay the thirst of the weary traveller on life's stormy journey even for the mere pittance of a dime, would with ferocity and financial fays fight such a law to the death. And why should they enter protest? Simply because, if all were free without fine or fault, to enter into its production and sale, then a capital of $50 would be sufficient to make a start and enter the business as manufacturer, retailer and consumer combined. (Oh, what a glorious time we'd have, eh!), which would tend to divide the $900,000,000 annually spent for drink among the 70,000,000 instead of among the hundreds or thousands which would give a greater diversification to our farmers and send our aforesaid philanthropists to some more honor- able sphere, to exploit their superb talents towards the eleva- tion of mankind. But we should not forget that it does not come within the calling of the politician of the present day to entertain for a * Repeal of silver purchase act without a substitute. 295 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS moment such a preposterous proposition, for it would tres- pass on the preponderant prerogatives of capital. But in these days of occultism if we could only hypnotize him into doing something for the masses, in the hope of staying na- tional and individual mania towards suicide, the one pur- blind by power, pomp, pride and putrid pusillanimity, and the other blinded by the perpetual fear of the probable post- ponement of that prodigal pint of porridge, prescribed as necessary for further existence. The politician, if under such spell, might take off this tax from an American industry and consumption and place it on the imported luxurious champagne, brandy, wine, ales and the skutch baerls, so as to give the cock of the walk, or king of the roost, from Buzzards Bay, a chance to show his wisdom in working the racket of tariff for revenue only. In closing the saloons you would deprive the drunkard of the opportunity of expounding his profound knowledge of the problems of life during the periodical electric ebullitions of his forceful brain, for the mere cost of treating his select audience, who rarely ever work, neither do they spin, except baseless yarns from which they weave a gasy garb to robe in splendor their unrealizable hopes, but to whose credit it must be acknowledged, never are they guilty of paying for the drinks. You would deprive him. of that mesmeric influence of the thrilling, tinselled tesselation of the surroundings, and the obsequious, obliging attentions of that affable presiding offi- cial, and deprive him of the privileges in the private house of carrying on his orgies that are not only allowed, but hil- ariously applauded in the barroom as long as he is good at the bar of Int. Rev. ; and thus compel him, if he would, to satiate his passions at home in the presence of a probable sick wife and more than likely shabbily dressed, with her two great toes playing peek-a-boo in her shoes, and among half-fed and half-naked children. If such was the case his brutal courage might fail him, as an object lesson sometimes leaves an impression on the most obdurate or disordered brain. But the flask consumed in pledging the lasting sacred- ness of loving neighborly friendship, long tried and true, cemented and purified by the sanctity and privacy of the home, was never productive of evil, nor never will. 296 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Let the advocates of taxed whiskey look over the statistics of the period when liquors were free and see if you find the one-tenth of the crime, privation and suicide that now struts through every nook and cranny in this lavishly fertile land. Compare your list of suicides then and now, your electrocu- tions (could you not cut them off fast enough by the old time-honored fashion or method of) hangings, your murders, your jails and penitentiaries, outdoing the proverbial street car, your 500 millionaires and your 5,000,000 hunted, hound- ed, human beings humbly begging to work, as God com- manded none should eat without, and tell us would free whiskey work such hellish havoc in a century as the cen- tralization of the $900,000,000 did in a decade ? Oh, precious prudes, please cease your psalmody and voice your volition for the alleviation of the misery inflicted by pernicious, vicious laws in harmony with capital on that persecuted, despised being created in the image and likeness of God. Yes, your brother in Christ, man, and for once be advised by the innocent boy in the pastoral, when his mother and sister Jane went out to pray, "Oh, that mother would take a tumble !" In the collection or levying of the home tax or internal revenue on what may be called a purely American produc- tion, as also in the tax levied on foreign commodities enter- ing into competition with our own, which is sometimes, or in one case, partly used as a bonus on home production, such as sugar. We see that such taxes are collected in an irregular and undefined manner, leaving the burden equally on every consumer, whether he be a millionaire or mendicant, except when the millionaire is travelling abroad, then he pays taxes only where he consumes and leaves the laborer tO' hustle to support this government, providing that each consumes an equal amount of wool, wheat, whiskey, sugar, tobacco, etc., and as any individual cannot consume much more than any other except in the way of drink, we find that the laborer with a half dozen children pays more for the support of the national government than the millionaire with one or two, or perhaps none. The consumer pays towards the support of the general government in proportion to the amount he con- sumes, regardless of the amount of property he possesses or benefits he derives. The greater part of this government tax 297 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS is expended for the protection and preservation of large property interests, for the adjudication of such claims, for judges, courts, marshals, etc., which the poor consumer never enters, for the supervision of distilleries, bonded warehouses^ etc. Some thoughtless people may say that the latter pay all the internal revenue, but no, such is not the fact. It is true that they advance it to government and thereby undertake its re-collection or payment with interest added as profit, on the sale of their goods. Here again comes the genteel banker with that freezing wooden look, say with $1,000,000 capital, in United States bonds, for which he re- ceives 4 or 5 per cent, interest in gold from government, which the consumer has to pay, and $900,000 in banknotes ■for which latter he pays government i per cent., which he issues to suit his purpose best, and generally receives 10 to 12 per cent, interest on that, as well as on $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 of deposits, on all of which he does not pay one cent of this government tax. But it is true he pays some on what he eais, drinks, wears, chews, smokes or snufifs, and fully as much anyway as the Honorable Hobo who slings his hammock and quite seraphic looks as he swings a mile a minute, between the travelling trucks. But the banker in his business consumes the time and services of United States courts, judges, marshalls, district attorneys, bank examiners and Congress even in making laws to enable him to better fleece the public in loaning them their own money in a con- fidential way, you know. We suppose that the banker is par excellence at working the confidence racket, but with all other professional gamblers the confidence game is played out. INCOME TAX. The form or method adopted and applied in levying and collecting state, county, etc., tax, complies in a measure with the just and equitable principles which should be the guide of all governments in the assessing, levying and collection for their own support, whose motto should be, Equal burdens on all, pro rata according to the cost to the state for the preservation of their private property rights, which latter, as it now seems, is held in higher estimation than human exist- 298 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ence. If the state would apply such a method without par- tiality or favor, and strictly enforce the principles here laid down together with those in pars. 486-7, etc., it would have then as just and honorable a method as has as yet been de- vised in the government of human social affairs. It may be laid down as a fundamental principle that each individual should pay a tax to society for what he con- sumes, or more explicitly, on everything which he dedicates to his own private use, enjoyment or benefit, or expects the same from, and of which he denies society, to share any pos- session of or derive any benefits from. According to our present social structure with a just and equal distribution assessment and levy of tax, it is self evident that no one can pay any more tax than that paid on what he rightfully consumes. The individual builds himself a home to avoid paying rent, and the consequent payment of his landlord's taxes. He pays taxes on his home for its lawful protection, and all other benefits derived from society, as one of his requitals to society or the state, and because he denies the public any other benefit from it. But if he seeks employment from society he endeavors justly to figure for the payment of a^^ his expenses, tax included, in the remuneration he asks for his services. The mercantile man adds to his first purchase price on his goods, his rent, if renting, in which his landlord's taxes are included, his own taxes and all other expenses, which he considers the cost price, before allowing for, or placing the margin for profit ; as do all men who are en- gaged in any active operations or occupations who possess taxable property, or income of any nature. So that every man in business of whatever kind forces the purchaser of his wares whether they be opinions in law, straw hats or oleomargarine to contribute to the payment of his taxes, with increase added. It is true the so-called taxpayer ad- vances the money to government, and if in business of any conceivable sort, then establishes himself a second-hand tax collector. We see, therefore, that the consumer is the funda- mental taxpayer and that virtually taxes are paid by none other. The critical cynic may ask Who pays the taxes of the man 299 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS who owns his own private dwelling and lOO acres of pleasure grounds and $20,000 secreted away and its cache only known to himself? It may be said that under peculiar conditions he does. But such an individual is without the pale of con- sideration or recognition when the assessing of a general tax levy is being devised, for were there 75,000 such as he or about one in every 1,000 of our population, there would be no means for levying taxes by law, nor none to be collected, as there would not be a dollar in circulation in the country, and our present state of government could not exist. As he possesses 1,000 times more than his per capita share of the circulating medium that society has devised for the facilita- tion of exchanges, not for hoarding, which would in itself force the government, that is, if the money volume was regu- lated by government, as it should be, and as wisdom and equity dictates, to issue $20,000 more money to replace that, which they could not account for in their strict and minute tally to society of their volume of actual circulating medium, and force it to also punish the offending hoarder whenever found by fine and imprisonment together with the confisca- tion of the now illicit money, by being perverted from per- forming its proper functions. As to his lands or pleasure grounds, he possesses more than his share of arable lands, from which he denies and prohibits the public to derive any benefits, the same for his house, for which he pays taxes instead of rent. Now in the undisputed possession and uninterrupted enjoyments of his property, he consumes as much of the protection of the State, in its active preservation of society rights, law, and order, as does, the possessing taxpayer of any similarly valued lands and house, and no more for the peculiar and detrimental security he enjoys, than the possessor of so much cultivated lands. But he should pay more than twice as much for his visible property, the invisible can only be presumption, until known or proved, because he deprives humanity of sharing or partaking of the potential fruits of his land ; if all did likewise the race would soon become extinct. And in order to allow him to continue thus, it would be just to society and to him, to tax him a sufficient amount to counter- act the evil influence of his precedent of indolence and 300 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS luxury, to enable the state to maintain state institutions for the inculcation of ideas of thrift, industry and self-support, with its sequel of a durable and healthy state of society, and not a support, by perverting the agent of man's imagination or society's device, money, from its conceptional intent, or by diverting the forces of nature in their willingness to perpetuate the race, by retaining inert, an otherwise prolific tract of land. So he simply pays taxes on what he con- sumes, as he consumes the undivided and undisturbed enjoy- ment and benefit he derives from his house and lands. But for the very small employment he gives to state servants, who interchange with society, what little they receive of his taxes, we could pronounce our wealthy misanthrope, a dead shot incubus. He may have acquired house lands and money honestly, but it is doubtful, for, looking at it from a strictly ideal, social standpoint, he could hardly succeed that well by the mere investment and application of his labor at $3 per day and its past fruits. And sound social philosophy questions the right of any individual, dead or alive, to bestow a gift on any other but the state or society, or a burden on society, such as an invalid, that in material virtue or magnitude will tend or be calculated to render the beneficiary an indolent or solely consuming member of that society, as even money brought from another society has no real value and cannot of itself in any way fructify or produce, although exchangeable by law, yet the possessor and the money are both a burden on that society, since neither produce ; therefore, the question still remains. Could he have procured this money hon- estly? If society in general is taxed for v^hat it produces and consumes, then the misanthrope should be taxed with arithmetical progression for what he produces, social bane, and consumes, for this is the class that never pay to society the amount of tax that they justly owe, and this is the class that it behooves the producers to cause to pay their just share of the burden for the support of the government, in order to at least lamely equalize the tax on society, for it is evident that society must produce 301 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to exist and must labor to produce, and no man can come into the possession of money honestly, or of what it is the fractionally designated evidence, wealth, without render- ing a universally acknowledged equivalent in the way of a palpable, tangible, visible or known benefit, even if it- was only professional prayers for rain in a long-continued drouth. Indeed, he may be said to come into its posses- sion legally, but never with social justice and justness, either law, charity or neither. As all wealth, even that procured through the gestation of animals, cannot reproduce, replenish, renovate or in- crease itself to that degree of excellence necessary for a favorable conservation of the human race without the application by man of mental and physical labor, in connec- tion with the tangible, though undefined and indefinable, forces of nature ; and as fruitful, individual effort cannot exist without knowledge and will-power, therefore in con- nection with man the word labor contains the full signifi- cance of both physical and mental productive exertion. Since labor, in connection with its past-created fruits, not its impotential representative, is all that it is possible for man to apply in the creation of all production, and as far as it comes within the province of the mortal to construct, replenish or create; it may be laid down as an apodictic axiom that labor creates or produces all wealth ; therefore, in some manner or other, at some time or other, labor pays all taxes and supports the whole human race. So a sane society, desiring to be just, should ever and forever banish all drones, for they are the inveterate germ of all social disease. As labor produces all wealth, and that through the operation of our unjust, biased and inequitable, economic laws it possesses the least, it would be both just and consistent to lighten the brden of the support of govern- ment from off of the laborer until a more equal distribu- tion of wealth would be the result, when each would then subscribe a more equal share; this should be done as quickly as possible by making those contribute more than they do now who are constantly consuming the products of labor, but who never contribute to the real or actual 302 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS supply or increase, but who, through the operation of our eccentric, ecumenical, economic laws, have legally seques- tered the Active measuring factor of the products of labor, which they have never created. It would not only be a just and honest mode of procedure to cause them to pay that portion righteously deemed commensurate with their cost to society, but it might be a propitious, prim- ordial, politic move to set about counteracting the ap- parent, retropulsive retreat of the laborer to that prime- val doctrine, of which he must be the living illustration — the survival of the fittest ! It might be wise to remember that it is an innate characteristic of man to bend to a certain load of impositions, but when that degree is exceeded, that the greater the retroflexion, the more ter- rific the resilience. In the hope of arriving at justice to all and special exemptions to none, we should abolish the internal rev- enue tax as now levied and raised and establish in its stead a graduated income tax system altogether, public, apt, direct, certain and plain, so that evasion would be onerous and difficult. Each adult whose income amount- ed to $200 to pay direct to the collector of graduated income tax or revenue, i per cent, per annum ; from $200 up to $500, i^ per cent.; from $500 up to $1,000, 2 per cent. ; from $1,000 to $1,500, 2^ per cent, ; from $1,500 up to $2,000, 3 per cent. ; from $2,000 up to $2,500, 3^ per cent. ; from $2,500 to $3,000, 4 per cent. ; from $3,000 to $3,500, 4^ per cent. ; from $3,500 to $4,000, 5 per cent., and 6 per cent, on all incomes from $4,000 to $10,000, and I per cent, extra added for every $5,000 or fraction thereof over the first $10,000. To say the least, this tax would be fair and just, and then neither dishonest rich nor hon- est poor could find any fault with it that would not apply to all with equal force and its principal fault, of course, would be justice or equity. Through some unforeseen cause, if this assessment was found not to be sufficient, the assessment could easily be increased; but such an assessment on a $15,000,000,000 annual increase, in taxing a per capita mean of the above figures, would amount to $600,000,000, which should be 303 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ' ■j ample for years to come. By this means every individual i would pay a constant, arbitrable and authentic publicj contribution, in accordance with the revenues or benefits ^ he received from society, and the all-possible protection he received on his property. He would simply pay for the support of his government what any member of any com- munity, religion or government should do, to whose law^s or tenets and the acknowledged benefits, by continued active participation, or even presence, he subscribes, with- out logical or just complaint. As to all others, the sooner that they pack their duds and slink, the better for all con- cerned. Consider this due notice, for we mean it! Should it, by some peculiar method of reasoning, be deemed wise and prudent to continue the collection of the internal revenue, besides tne fearless, open, direct income tax, then when collected it should be applied to the support of the public schools, and to grant a pen- sion of $100 per year to every worthy indigent over sixty years of age, who worked through life while others reaped the benefit of his toil, and to those, also, incapacitated from labor by accident or disease by them unavoidable. Then the drunkard would assist in the education of his children and help to support his worn-out or decrepit parent or relation. By this mode we would be returning in part to them by law what was fleeced from them through the operation of our cruel law. It would not be charity, but a part of their just dues returned for the benefits we and our posterity can enjoy from their past improving effort. As, for instance, anyone who by his labor aided in building the Union Pacific line of railroad should never be allowed to sufifer the pangs of htmger in old age, Avhile the railroad, or all the avenues it opened up for the sustenance of future generations exist. But the syntetic cynic sneeringly remarks : Oh, but they were paid for their work all it was worth ! No ! Never can labor be fully requited for its effort while ever that improvement exists, although it may have been cajolingly appeased at that time by receiving stereotyped, fictive evidences of man's imagination, which can never justly balance both will-power and physical force until water runs up hill. 304 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Such a distribution of the internal revenue would act \ as an incentive to honest endeavor during the years of j labor and doubly serve as a stumbling block in the path I of the demon of suicide. Away with that cold, formal j and gigantic thorn of charity, the almshouse, ever through I life cajoling, jeering, mocking that misfortunate, misgov- , erned, misguided, misrated, misjudged toiler, ever to him I the emblem of left-handed, life-chilling charity and de- i spised dependence, which both, in health, he utterly de- I tests, and now to him in advanced years, the madly has- i tening force of the dissolution of his waning independ- ence and spirit, ever impelling on to the inevitable col- lapse, a premature, if not a suicide's grave. 305 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS PART VIII. INTEREST BANKS. Two kinds of interest or tax on thrift. — Judas Iscariot as banker. — Is interest constitutional? — "Declaration of Independence" from banking. — Guiltless Moses. — Beauties of interest. — Philosopher's stones. — One dollar at 2% a month. — Isocheimal two-threaded yarn. — Excuse for interest. — Honest money. — Law of association. — Instru- ment of association.— Should those old ideas guide us now ? — Another excuse for interest or how to justify it. — National bank baby. — Banks increasing similarly as is decreasing all real value and virtue. — Their capital increases in unison with the farm's price. — All balances beautifully. — Balance all. — Turtle steak. — Supply and demand. — When Bacchus gets his gun off. — Old school primer. — The alderman. — Substance not shadow. — Four supply and demand axioms. — All animals associative. — Duty of temporarily delegated government. — Bond, bank bill and mortgage. — How the dollar represents labor power. — Curse of interest. — State interest laws of, inconsistent, in- constant, incipient, insane, legislators. — Consistent justice, sweet- scented jewel. — Regulate all profit by law. — Protective tariff accused of interest curse. — Another method to justify interest. Interest may be said to be of two kinds, as far as hon- esty is concerned; first, there is a dishonest interest; and, second and last, there is a diabolically dishonest inter- est. The first is that dishonest interest that' the law of a state, no matter how rotten it may be, that it will not stand godfather for. This rate is generally quoted at 5 per cent, per month, and has this redeeming feature about it — that it may some day wake up the lethargic sucker to the consciousness of what a barefaced robbery interest is ; that, instead of the borrower being paid for being re- sponsible for its safety and certain return, without any risk to the lender, or charge for the taxes idle money should bear, or instead of recompense for using that other- wise idle, legal credit for the exchange of labor in the pro- duction of the absolute necessities for the preservation of the race, lo ! and behold ! he is charged interest for his beneficial activity — for using the fanciful, impotential photographof man's imagination, still worse perverted by 306 J PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the collusive, delusive cogitations of innate thieves or arrant knaves from its conceptional and fundamental function and intent. SHYLOCK-S RACKET. The second and last interest is that diabolically hedged and blindly blinking, unconstitutional state law, as ridicu- lous as different and as fiendish as inconstant, that semi- legalized though justly illicit tax on industry and thrift for the support of inimical idleness and insatiable de- baucher}^, authority for which is not to be found in our Constitution, nor in any law ever framed creating money where the nation ever had an average experience or en- lightenment; which has been cursed before and since Moses was knee high to a duck, and will ever be so as long as the true philanthropist exists or the duck quacks in defending the infernal recognition of such a robbing scheme. In this connection we should remember that decades of centuries after Moses retired from the repudia- tion business — not the banking business, mind you, and don't forget it — that if Judas Iscariot or the scarlet-robed usurer had put out at the exorbitant interest of 4 pei" cent, the thirty pieces of silver, the legal tender value of which was three cents each, or a bank capital of ninety cents and go into business next day, it would now amount to $215,681,440,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Now a chunk of gold this size would be 17,680 times larger than our whole globe, Judas Iscariot & Co., and all ! How is that for' that inveigling, interloping invention of the foster papa of that innocent infant, interest? As the dishonesty and injustice of interest has never been questioned by anyone ever rising to the dignity of being worthy of serious or lengthy refutation, the wavering question now arises, Is interest constitutional? It — the Constitution — is silent on the question; it is^ true the power is given Congress to coin money, etc., issue bills of credit or borrow money; but where does the word interest come in? Congress can issue paper money con- stitutionally. It can legalize or cause the evidences of debt to be a full legal tender in the liquidation of contracts 307 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS or indebtedness; then is this not money for money? Whether money as interest was to be paid on those debts for contracting a loan from foreigners, or whether a com- mercial treaty was to be the recompense, we are left in doubt or to surmise, as well as to whether the intention was to only borrow from Americans only, and to pay them with legal tender evidences of the debt, such as United States Treasury notes, that have been issued regu- larly at intervals since the foundation of our Republic, and all evidences of a national debt are untaxable by the states, this would seem to be the onh^ general recom- pense intended in lieu of interest. The latter intention seems to be the one entertained by the fathers of the country, with their but yet dawning knowledge and conviction of the falsity of the intrinsic value of money, which then was but rarely questioned by the general public ; because we find that those fathers, still further enlightened on the subject of finance by expe- rience, if nothing more, showing and proving their horror and contempt for banks and interest and like institutions of reality for gall, or something for nothing, by passing, in 1793, a resolution prohibiting anyone, owning all or a part in, or in any way connected with banks, etc., from having or holding a seat in Congress, and this was passed by men who assisted in framing the Constitution. Not only now is it high time for Congress to promulgate to the world their declaration of ''banking independence," pronouncing as illegal and unconstitutional any or all interest for the use of money, except that paid to govern- ment for cost of issue and regulation, but also as the right of invalidating certain contracts has been reserved from the states, this power must reside in Congress ; therefore, is it not high old time that debts unjustly and dishonestly contracted should be dealt with similarly as Moses did with their early predecessing counterpart, by repudiating them? Poor old Moses would not be a bad criterion to be guided by ! It seems to to us, for we never heard anything wrong about the man, only that he was the very first man to break all the commandments of stone. But then, you know, he was so mad at the golden calf. Now what harm was that? 308 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS A few more of the beauties of interest should ever be kept before the mind. Suppose you put out $i at 7 per cent, interest for 100 years, it will amount to $868 in that time. Now, if you put your labor in with $1 worth of material of any kind, the result of your labor will have to yield $9.68 per year for you to receive $1 a year to eat on and $8.68 to pay for interest. This is why the interest payer will always be poor. And why do you pay interest on a legal, circulating, uncreative agent of credit or a receipt only for value furnished, which agent or receipt you yourself have created by your common consent? Or, suppose you put out $1 at 12 per cent., the present average rate, for 100 years, it would amount to only $84,675. Can your principal stand that? Now can you see why the toiler, during a thrifty, industrious life, cannot accumulate a competence? Now can you not see that interest is the sum total of all the banging, blight- ing bane of all pure social science ? Whenever you can recon- cile your idea, that is expressed in $1, with that other admiringly confusing idea of $84,675, then, lucky lad! bully for you ! You struck it immensely rich ! You have found the philosopher's stones ! ! ! Oh, we be goll darned squashed, if you haven't ! That's them, sure ! Now we suppose that you will pay interest right along now, as before. But, again, once more, for those who have not found them yet. Let us suppose that you borrowed $1 for 100 years, at 2 per cent, a month, and millions of people to-day and every day know and pay that rate right here in the United States for the use of their common, legal- value-given, circulating medium, or 24 per cent, a year ; this would amount to the paltry pittance of $2,551,799,- 404, or more money than the brassy British Islands and the United States possess altogether, counting all kinds of money, even cents, farthings, forged notes and counter- feit bank notes combined. Will you continue paying in- terest with the reality of those figures fleetly flitting through your faltering, fenny, fainting brain; or should you will to pay it without protest as heretofore, then move right along, dear angel, we will rest and carp no more 309 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS (until we wash down the poisonous pill with lager-beer galore. — Schiller). Should you elect to calmly continue in this bedraggling, miry, chaotic rut, that the Israelites of old were drag- gled through until Moses found for them a dry trail to single-file out, then, we will really believe that you have not a much keener sense of right and wrong, and possess a similar amount of isocheimah cheeky, mental crewel as the man who precipitately rushes into print on conjur- i ing up a half-reasoned idea, in the hope of sprouting an i ism or schism, so that he may be notched high up on that ' rootless flagstaff of sophistry ; such a one as might be i heard noisily asserting that usury was wrong, but inter- j est was right, or vice versa, belaboring the mind with | scraps of bond chains into such a suppurating fever as to swamp all previous impressions of equity, and totally drowning the knowledge that princinle once wrong can never ; be right or just, and once just or light can never be wrong or unjust. When all parties are agreed in judgment, ' which may right a wrong and which may wrong a right, i the appreciation of either being mostly formed by the ' airy, volatile opinion of that gray, pulpy matter called i the brain, but the righteous principle forever doth remain, j If the principle is wrong in essence, human reasoning ' powers can devise no brain scheme to right it in its appli- ■ cation to human affairs of justice. If man was endowed : — that is, legislators or representative men—- with the j powers of prolonging life or charming off the necessity for j sleep, or aliment, or all indispensable human requisites, | and could concentrate those powers at stated periods into issues of money that advanced in immanent powers with age, then, and then only, would interest or increase have a right of being; but up to date we have not heard that such powers were conferred on politicians, or we would make a record-smashing race for constable next fall ; yes, sir, in every district in the United States ! It is argued by some writers more notorious than note- worthy that, because government pays interest on na- tional bonds, that interest is therefore legal, and should be constitutional. If Congress in using their powers or prerogatives granted by the Constitution enact a law or 310 j PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I devise a scheme for the payment of interest, or any other orphan robbery which works a hardship on the greater number, and to the inequitable or unrighteous benefit of the few, then that law is essentially unconstitutional, illicit, cruel and criminal, and continues bearing usurious interest in evil while allowed to remain unrepealed. The government of a country has better credit than any of its integral parts and can always use that credit, instead of borrowing what it can create, and by not borrowing it forces the money offered, when no interest is allowed thereon, into active industry, there to produce in connec- tion with active labor power the only increase possible and just, which it previously sought to obtain by cowling itself in cowhide, cunning, candied sophistry. This is the labor power, as imperishable and indestructible as the race itself, we so often hear those loud-whining and whin- ing whelps of unconscious cuckoos or parrots of assump- tive philosophy so lamentably deploring as lost, since they themselves will not toil, as they despise vulgar, phys- ical labor, and will but feed and fly on the fulgent finesse of what they are please to plagiarize and proclaim social association, fearful lest they should run short of satisfy- ing their gluttonous appetite or satiate their debauching propensities ; if a cohort of the toiling masses stopped short to hack at the ever-tightening chains of oppression and wrong, digging into their enervating flesh, or to take and educational emetic to vomit the fouling stains of their masters' tyranny from their over-generous, honest souls. We sometimes find some writers, as garrulous as gusty, as volatile as voltaic, and as light as ludicrous, we would say, was not the subject and conditions so serious and of life-dealing importance to all the masses honestly inclined and of death-dealing or labor significance to the indo- lent drones who have thus far fattened on the fruits of others' toil, claiming that interest for the use of money is as just as interest or rent for a house, a farm, etc. The question of rightful ownership remaining latent, we will say that the house or farm is valued at $3,000, each con- sisting of the aggregated improvements of 1,000 average days' labor of eight hours per day of $3 per day. In either of those properties we have the true and actual 311 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS crystallization of labor power, force or value, which can only render those potential elements conducive of actual benefit to man. The house affords him shelter from the inclemence of the elements and the intrusion of inter- lopers. This structure of itself furnishes an actual neces- sity to man. The crystallization of the labor power alone has rendered the farm prolific of man's transmuta- tive, physical necessities. This is of real, actual value to man. But, you say, money built the house. No; it was labor power that built the house. Yes, but money paid the laborers who built it. Yes. But now the scientific or true social definition of honest money in an abstract, strict and undisputed sense is, it is a national, legal tender, interchangeable, token certificate or receipt for actual value received. If the builder or owner honestly came by his $3,000, he rendered i,ooo days* labor or its actual equivalent to society, and still his house is the crystal- lization of labor power, and represents $3,000, tokens or certificates or receipts,- for actual value. But what of the shadow or certificate? He now sells it for $3,000. He has exchanged it for its legal photograph. It is not crys- tallized labor power ; it is impotential ; it cannot increase itself ; neither can labor increase it ; the exchange of labor may add more tokens to the number; it has no poten- tial power, or labor could increase it ; it has only the impo- tential legal power or figurative force given it by law, which is fixed and cannot increase, except through the operations of that law that created it; it does not give him shelter ; it does not yield him the fruits of the earth ; he can purchase either, but such a part has left him for- ever; he can purchase another house with it by exchang- ing it with someone willing to exchange Exactly so. This interchangeable function is all the power or value that the law has given, or can legitimately give, to money. The law cannot give real value to money; if it could, then it might rightfully bear interest. The law can only give to money an abstract, ideal value, which is a nominal measuring value, which can only be increased or de- creased by ruling, regulating or changing its ideal meas- ure, either direct by law specially, or indirect by regula- 312 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tion of its volume. It is impossible for mortal to create real power, value or force, or power of increase in any impotential device or design of the brain, and no value whatever but the nominal legal obligatory decree to gov- ern all those subscribing to that law can legitimately be given by any law or government, and only that expressly stipulated by the governed. And no element or force in nature can produce a fruitful, healthy or fully desirable increase without being allied, aided or assisted with or by actual labor power ; then this power is the foundation and culmination of all social association, necessity, com- forts, happiness and progress of all kinds. But even some writers of enviable renown, in their zeal for their honestly conceived and prompted notions, have placed what they term the law of association as the great- est need of man. If by that was meant, from an educa- tional and its cumulatively comforting standpoint, then rt would be partially true ; but man always was, is and will be an associative animal, like all other animals (see paragraph 689) are, although nature has provided them with life-preserving necessities that we now find man devoid of. It is an innate attribute of man, or a compul- sory requirement of those secret forces of nature that he must obey and cannot control and, if despised, results in extinction. Such association can be but incidentally im- proved by utilizing the past experience of others, and by no sound method of reasoning can it be contorted into an excuse for interest on money, or for its issue, except to and by government. They ramble on through realms of induction, from which they descend so confused that they even go so far astray as to assert that the powers or faculties of thought or ideas and language are derived only from the law of association, but to forget to — just casually, you know, or incidentally — mention from what source came the first thoughts, ideas or expression of such. Thought or idea and language are indefinable attributes of man, which may be termed the soul, and similar with that associative, impelling force, reason or instinct not artificial or acquired, but an innate attribute, and no amount of mysticism or mystically ambiguous expressions 313 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of man can transform or reduce and take credit for so doing this natural law of association into' that cunningly devised, experimentally incidental and additionally manu- factured law of association, or set it up as such in their vague attempts in conjuring some logical excuse for bol- stering up that caustic cancer of national or social associa- tion, interest, or corporate banks. Again we are told that money is the instrument of this association. In dealing in social or scientific problems the most necessary requisite is to have a strict regard for words and their exact definition. This word, instru- ment, is both inappropriate and serves to mislead, which may not have been the intention. Its preferable or prin- cipal signification being a tool, utensil or machine, which might leave the impression on the plastic mind of the in- cautious student that the word implied that the virtue or value was in the material of which the piece was made or composed, being either or a mechanical or intrinsic value. If matter or the material of which the token was composed was intended to be expressed as conveying the intended idea, then instrument would be a happy conveyancer. But if the idea of the instrumental-piece- evidence of the law, and that law the expressed consensus of the public mind or will, as impressed on the token, as their apt or felicitous agent, messenger or token-witness of their circulating medium, legally and universally au- thorized and recognized, as the doubly obligatory can- cellor of all debts and the national, legal receipt for its figuratively measuring of actual value received, then the word instrument would have a clouded or ambiguous meaning, as this piece of steel we now write with has not the power or intrinsic attribute of expressing our ideas, although it is now, in a small degree, instrumental in so doing, just as a piece of gold, silver, copper, etc., goose- quill, graphite (see paragraphs 215-16), etc., would be, but the power behind the throne of expression is the thought, will or mind force, indefinable by, and beyond the conception of, all men. No doubt but that these classes of writers referred to in paragraphs 658-61 were impelled by pure motives and honest convictions, when all earnestly, and some sacredly^ 314 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS were advocating, propagating and propaganding their multifarious and interconflicting theories as to what man and nation should do, and how all should act, and how in their commercial transactions and social intercourse be governed; and that they ardently labored, desired and hoped for the elevation of man, partly by their aid, to that plane, obviously assigned him by his God — the happy state of universal peace and omniparity. For all of whom the writer of to-day, while excluding their comtemptibly copying and imitative, automatic cuckoo-striking-time- servers, who constantly try to twist and pervert, by basest literal calumny, the originally honest idea of the so-called masters of old, should entertain nothing but the most profound respect, honest admiration and sincere thanks, when forced to take issue with them, or even moved to pity at the thought of their comparatively som- bre surroundings or conditions, for their work so nobly done, in magnifying their ideas, by select and lucid ex- pression, so that we can readily grasp the benefit of their thoughts, w^hich shall ever shine as stars in the relatively sombre twilight given them. But are we ever to be guided by those thoughts or ideas of men who never realized, or of those who scarcely ever tasted, any of the most luscious fruits of freedom? Or shall we rest our oars on that now stagnant water, the evaporation from which then generated the ideas of the v^riter, v^hich waters were heated by the animal pas- sions of the oppressed, inflamed by the yet burning, active treatment of his British-tyrant-masters? Or shall we never prune the sprout of Hght and . liberty set out by the primal planters of the intellectual tree of equality, and let it go uncared for, to be smothered by the surrounding, profuse, fast-growing tare sown by tyrants? Or shall we not dare to improve on the ideas evolved in the age of straw-saddled, burro-backed locomotion, with the rider's feet plowing and connecting his thoughts with the 'field of drudging, laborious toil? Or shall we select and train from them the brightest, clearest, noblest and most fruitful of equity, so as to have them sound and act in harmonious unity with those ideas evolved in the age of the palace car, with the rider's 315 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS feet in touch with the electric sparks from the rails, con- necting him and conducting his thoughts, ideas and hopes to fascinatingly contemplate, behold and converse with the higher forces or elements, the beauties of perfect equality, and serenely meditate on the perfect adapta- tion of one to all and all to one, where only, as yet, per- fect equal rights exist, in that celestial ocean of man's breathing-life-spirit, in which each atom is welcomed by the same warm, smiling, loving sunbeam, and also by the same immutable order of the God of all, Nature, is chilled by the same condensing, cooling power of all ani- mate or inanimate matter, and is banged by the same dynamic force? Here is perfect harmony and peace, as no special privileges are given to individual atoms, and each voluntarily performs its predestined duty. Here there is no compulsory, damnable, devilish, dronish, de- ceitful tax or interest on atomic toil or duty, but each atom is bathed in the rapturous smiles of that power than all forces of nature known or conceivable to man and connecting, ordering, blending all, still higher ! But to-day, on descending from those beauteous realms of joyous thought, what does observing man behold when forced by his long aerial journey to seek to satisfy the heaven divined, natural cravings of the flesh? He beholds that man, even bank presidents, railroad magnates, stock- future-speculators, real-estate-booming-fakirs and all that great horde of corpuscular cormorants,, eat the fruits of others' labor power, and not their own! And he beholds man, who has been impartially enjoined by nature to labor from the cradle to the grave, that he might eat, and this deluded, downtrodden class of man compelled by man's evil genius to double his task of toil that the drone may live ! And, on emerging from the railroad inn table he beholds that castellated or stately structure created by labor power from the stone and grit of the earth, now grimly grinning at and mocking into fury its outcast, wandering creator, the tramp ! What wonder if his righteous frenzy by him was cast against that ghastly frowning pile of rock, there to explode and return its every part to its original atomic - condition ! It is the bank ! 316 i I PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS j If the representatives of the people will be as easily I purchased to work in the interest of the idle or money ' class as they have been for the past thirty years, and j propose that the government be a father or a paternal i government for bankers only, then the following sugges- I tion might enable them to forestall nature, and not only start off square with her, but get a head and neck in ad- [ vance : Let the government issue plenty of money to the j banks and compel them to loan it on good security, valued I at twice the amount of the loan, the. government to charge I the banks i per cent, for the money and compel them to j loan it all, up to such an amount, that everyone applying i with security should all be supplied, the money or bills each and all to increase at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum from date of issue, the interest or increase to be paid to the bankers on the issue, one year from date thereof, by the government, by another issue of new notes of a similar kind, bearing 2 per cent, increase, so that when the borrower came back at the end of a year with the money, lo ! he found that, by virtue of the law that the money had had an increase (not young ones) of full-fledged money production that paid his interest. Then you would see the banker hustling money into circula- tion, for then the more he loaned, the more interest he received. If the government charged the banks 2 or 3 per cent., the banks to charge 4 or 6, and receive the same by a new issue of similar notes, this latter amount might keep pace with the increasing volume of business, besides pay all revenue required for the support of government. If it ever become possible to have too much full legal tender money in circulation — which can never be — com- modities will rise in price, as would honor and virtue ; that is all the harm it could do; but its vacillant meas- uring qualities would remain the same as now, fancifully gauged only by the volume in circulation, and that no one could be found to pay interest any more, then cease the further issue of new notes, retire the tired, worn-out bank- ers on a pension of $100 per year during life and a re- served seat in heaven ! The first supply or issue, as well as the subsequent issues of bank interest, would still be due, as the government issue was paid out for services, 317 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS but what was due could be called square, as it still bore interest, which would be paid in the next world, anyway. Now you can chew on that chestnut burr for the next century, if you choose,- which you will find to have simi- lar, indefinable, intrinsic attributes, as the famed Keely cure. Let us inquire about the baby that was born when we were quite striplings — it's known by the name of national bank. In 1793 there were only three national banks in the United States, and then the stringent resolu- tion passed, disqualifying anyone connected with a bank from holding a seat in Congress. In 1892, or 100 years from the former date, they had increased to 3,701, or an increased 1,233-fold, while the population only increased about eighteenfold. In 1872 there were 1,832; in 1882 there were 2,197, o^ ^.n increase of less than 20 per cent.; in 1892, there was an increase of 60 per cent, and over, or 3,701. It must be a paying business. In 1872 their capital was $465,676,023, on which the total net earnings was $58,075,430, or 12.47 P^i" cent. In 1882 their capital was nearly $474,000,000, and their net earnings about $53,333,000, or an interest profit of 11.25 P^^ cent. In 1892 their capital was a little over $679,000,000, and their net earnings over $66,500,000, or an interest profit of a fraction less than 10 per cent. But it should be remem- bered these are their own manipulated figures, for the bank examiners are merely the bankers' tools. We find that in 1891, about similar to other previous years, that their bank capital was a little over $660,000,000, and their total net earnings over $75,750,000, or an interest profit of over 11.47 P^^ cent., or $11.47 o^ ^^^ $100. In the twenty-one years commencing 1872 and ending 1892 the average yearly capital was about $525,500,000, on which the average net earnings were nearly $55,000,000, or a twenty-one year average profit or interest on the legal phantom of man's imagination of 10.46 per cent., which stereotyped phantom called for certain enumerated amounts by law of real, actual value, which cost actual labor power expenditure in connection with the free dona- tions of all other potential forces of nature. So much in 318 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the battle for cunning- thought versus honest thought and action ! On this average capital of national banks only of $525,- 500,000, v^^hich ranged from $454,200,000 in 1880, the low- est, to $679,000,000 in 1892, the highest, there was a net earnings or clear profit of $1,150,000,000 for the twenty- one years, or over 219 per cent, of the capital. Well, is this capital worn out, like the farm, in twenty-one years' successive, similar crops? Or is it decayed by the action of the elements, like the shivering factory or the rotting workshop? Or is it bent with age and toil and worn out in the cruel struggle for a bare existence? Or its eyes dimmed and weakened with outward watching for the hireling, tyrant boss, and with burning, racking thought from within of that abominably close uncertainty of to- morrow's husky crust? No, my dear, gentle lady ! I give you my word of honor (what?!) that the mon-ey to-day is not only as good as ever, but will buy more vinaceous fruits, victuals, victims, vows and virtue than before, and its vivid, vulpine, vulturine vulgarity not only viable, but ever on the increase or interest. It is worthy of notice to remark at what rate those banks increased in number in the past two decades end- ing in 1892. In- 1872 -they numbered 1832; in 1882 they had increased 365, or one for every ten days in the ten years there was vomited from the plutonic regions a Cer- berus-headed viper to sting the fair form of the blind, impartial Goddess of Justice into this land of a Jackson and a Lincoln! Or they numbered, in 1882, 2,197, or nearly 20 per cent, increase of a mephitic malaria for the inhalation of American heedless freemen! From 2,197 in 1882 they had increased to 3,701 in 1892, or an increase of about 68^ per cent., or more than one in every two and one-half days there was cast amid an eruption of stifling, sulphurous fumes another merciless, liberty-murdering monster to poison the atmosphere and choke the spirit of liberty, which, alas ! has, deplorably and too plainly seen, resulted in 68^ per cent, loss of the sense of equity and Republican vitality among the worshippers of the golden calf idolatry. Let us see how what they call their capital fared in 319 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the past few years. In 1882 it was nearly $474,000,000; in 1892 it was $679,000,000, or an increase of over 43 per cent. With another increase of $105,000,000, or over 22 per cent, of what they call surplus or undivided profits — that is, the money that they have not been able to squander, moping around and blankly gazing at the tot- tering, crumbling, bat-horned monuments to mediaeval oppression, tyranny and wrong, and in purchasing those dear and sacredly kissed relics of that savave religion of man-idolatry in Europe, which monuments and relics ever shine in their eyes as moons and stars from a midnight earth. Not including the 10 per cent, annual dividends and without reckoning their investments in your mort- gage-foreclosed fences, fields, farms and childbirth homes at thirty cents on the dollar, this increase alone in ten years would amount to 65 per cent, in national bank capital or bank, farm, or factory of chimerical, swaggering wind. Please tell us, by return mail, has your 160 acres of river bottom or fertile, rolling land actually increased since, say, 1884, or ten years, in mony price or actual, positive market value, any more than 65 per cent., al- though you may have added to your capital or deposited therein 1,000 labor-power-real-intrinsic-fruitful dollars every year for each of those ten years? Or, rather, to be candid, has not your positive, intrinsic-value farm de- creased or fell 50 per cent, in market value or in the esti- mation of all actual buyers or appraisers except the tax assessor? Oh, yes! But we heard you sa}^ The farm is ours. It's -not for sale. Mind you own business ! Thank God ! Some of our greatest failures are our inordinate desire to be as patriotic and obedient as the American farm is immovable ; and that the American youth will see to it that, no matter who or what the owner may be, that farm will remain ever within the confines of our United States Republic. See ! So we will let the farm rest and recuperate for next year's crop, while you old fogies can keep on voting as your, fitful stubbornness dictates. Has the just and righteous interest or yield of the farm kept pace, or fell behind and lost the cadenced forward march! 320 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS guide centre ! run, march ! of the fraudulent, thieving yield !i of the bank? I On inquiry, we find that your wheat was bought and I sold in 1884, many years ago, for $1.07. In 1894 did you j get anything over fifty cents per bushel? Did this drop i of over 100. per cent, of its present price get. far ahead j of the purchasing power of the banker's bushel yield, or I $1.07 of 1884 or 1894? One thousand of which in '94 I would purchase your two-thousand farm of '84. Now, we. j wish to be obliging and get into your good graces again, so we must respectfully give this full reckoning of both harmonious calculations, and we must remark that we think it quite simple. Well, his dollar of '84 is now worth two, and your bushel of wheat now would have sold for two times its present price in '84. So, if you have not got ahead, you must be even, anyway. Now, two and one would be only three ; but two and two are four. Now we are that far. Well, then, if three is odd, why, four is even! Understand? So let us start new. You have not fared so very bad with your cotton as one might suppose at a first careless glance, and it can be squared up nicely and poised as evenly as the chemist's select beam and rider, or as keenly balanced as that chronometrical, indi- cating, alternating flywheel on that concentric, cursive cycle of eternity, the elastic, spiral lever of our jaded,, senily silenced Waterbury. In 1872 it was only 19.3 cents per pound. In 1873 it was only 18.8 cents per pound; but, of course, this one- half cent difference will not tally, so you will please re- member that you have perfect liberty to charge this nocent irregularity to that seemingly past, but still, perpetually living and justly celebrated black — black' — black Friday. But now we come to. where the fractions of figures, in tan- gled, crooked marks agree, and in harmony blend their powers to act by smilingly smoothing the thorny, tortu- ous trail traced out for he who toils to travel. In 1874 it was bought and sold at the more agreeable figures of 15.4 cents per pound. In 1884 it was bought and sold at 10.5 cents per pound. At this price the planter only lost one-third of the former price, or about one-half of that, of the then '84 price. Now the $1 bought only one-half more 321 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ' I than it could in 1874, or the one-third of that it now' (1884) could buy, which would only be one-half a pound | to the pound in either case, so to each belonged one-third , and one-half. Now, who has got the best of that? In 1 1893-4 the planter got seven cents per pound, or three ■ and one-half cents on the outside of ten and one-half cents, ■ or only lost, as before, one-third of the price of '84, or only j about one-half of the present price, and the $1 bought only ! one-half more than it could in '84, or the one-third of \ that it could now buy, and only one-half pound to the ! pound more, as before. Now, don't the planter get two-halves and two-thirds? Very well, then. To the dollar belongs the two other halves and two-thirds. Now each has two twos and two and any multiple of .two is even, and the one planter and the one dollar is two! So here is everything nicely dovetailed up. Now, where is the blatant inflationist of a depreciated currency, good only in the United States, who can find any fault with that plainly solved problem of back-action, bank-interest mathematics, and positively proved by the inexorable and immutable law of supply and demand. Having got that all straightened out, now all hands have a turtle stake (steak) for lunch from me! Who hollered mud? . j SUPPLY AND DEMAND. j 1 We've jnst asked the clerk at the Cosmopolitan if the i drummer was here, or soon expected, whose special line 1 was for the sale of supply and demand ; lavishing a chilling and commiserating smile upon us, he benevolently re- plied : Why, I constantly hear of him, and see what I < believe to be his former artificially colored empty cover, , and all the bellboys so often hear such jeering jibes about ' him that they are convinced that he is no other than that { detonation given, when Bacchus gets his gun off, or the pithy obstruction is removed from a bottle of extra Sec. Well, indeed you may well suppose that that did not quite satisfy our Yankee curiosity, so we hunted up our old school primer, and this is but a small fraction of what we learned. 322 7C FACTS In the supply and demand of all life-giving and preserv- ing commodities in nature, are ever fixed and constant, at the service of the will of man, all other forces of nature and ever fruitful only in connection w^ith his past or active, but ever actual, labor pov^^er. Such commodities, in obedi- ence to the spirit of thrifty independence and the natural cravings of the flesh, ever follow the relative rule of direc- tion or law of increase in the supply. And, in harmonious unity to the imperative demands of nature, the demand follows the converse rule of action or direction or the law of relative increase, in accordance with the pro rata or comparative increase of the earth's population. There- fore, the supply and demand are fixedly and constantly increasing, or never retroceding, of such natural fruits as well as all artificial structural fabrics and felicitous transformations. In this respect the ever-present rule or law of supply and demand, of all life-giving and preserv- ing, intrinsic values, of a material and palpable nature, of themselves but potential or in part inactive, may be said to be invariable or unyielding, or, as some love to call it, immutable and inexorable. The supply and demand of nature's gifts of human necessity ever remaining thus constant in general, can never be appreciably disturbed by the action or manipula- tion of a fractional-globe-government, much less by the action of a few individuals ; while either by law may locally change the capacity of their figurative measure, money, to a considerable extent, but never the volume or amount of supply or demand until the laborer ceases to toil. So this supply and demands remains radically inde- pendent of the supply and demand of its legal, imaginary measure, money, which latter was but devised to lighten the burden of the former's distribution, particularly to those overcrowded, unsound, labyrinthal, honeycombed rows of rock and mortar, those great, indefinable, mag- netic attractions for the ever-increasing agglomeration of the idle, the vicious and the dissolute, there to be herded by that scrubby human growth, the alderman; and to be known to the coming man as the cities of the past. Therefore, the supply of intrinsic value commodities de- pends only on the ability and willingness of man to judi- 323 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS cially expend labor power, which alone, in connection with the potential forces of nature, can truthfully, justly and honestly create or produce an interest, yield or in- crease. Then, away with your individual tax for the use of that impotential legal evidence or witness of labor, long past performed ! Allow or give only to the rightful owner of the substance its due increase. But never to the shadow ! So also the demand for such intrinsic value or life-con- serving commodities, depends only on the ability of man to procure, by his labor or by legal-labor-evidence, or by the fruits of human and natural productive force, the per- emptory needs of nature in sustaining human existence. On man being provided with, or possessed of, this ability to purchase or procure the necessaries of life, then, and then only, is the law or method of action, of demand, in- variable or unyielding. Which vacillation and cause of human suffering can be unfortunately aggravated by arti- ficial or legal means, through the ignorance, omission or mercenary and perfidious connivance of government or those delegated to regulate national social affairs. As long as the race exists this demand or corporal requirement, as well as fanciful requisition, will exist ; and as long as men shall make use of a nationally or uni- versally accepted token or figurative, measuring evidence of real value, just so long will the demand for them exist, proportionately increasing with the increase of population, intelligence and volume of business, barter or exchange of commodities, in order to thereby avoid as much as possible the effort used, or labor employed, in the distribution of movable or portable values or com- modities, or the easy legal exchange of the visible or tan- gible forces of nature, in combination with the beneficial aggregation or crystallization of actual labor power, such as a house, a farm, etc. Nations only should supply this demand, starting with an equal amount, one-half, one-third or one-sixth, that of the nation's actual potential wealth, as a legal, nominal, measuring token or piece-evidence volume, or circulating medium of exchange. Or the equal, or one-half, of the real value of the annual production, should be thus repre- 324 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS \ sented, and a just and commensurate increase added regu- || larly to agree with the increase of real wealth, in order f to keep current measures or ruling prices from going I below a minimum standard, and to maintain and increase I the standing of the nation before the world — if such a thing is in any way advisable at all, and, whether or not, when a majority of the people wish it so — for the same effort is only required to pay $io of bank money as lo cents for ten pounds of cotton. When this supply of money remains stationary or de- creases, while the volume of barter or business increases, then barter or production suffers, except done on unofficial or individual credit, and then the rule, order, law or prin- ciple of the demand bears nothing in common with, and has no unity of action with, the order of supply, which is not only artificial, but, as well, designedly perverted from working in any harmony with the demand by the mach- inations of a cunning class, who will not work, but who will live on others' toil. So, as far as the law or rule or order of supply and demand is concerned, as regards the supply of money, there is no relation in common or unison between it and the demand, because the supply is kept in an inadequate volume for the benefit of a certain class, to whose interest it is to keep it from satisfying the demand, in order to increase its purchasing power and interest yielding capacity. And as long as it is kept from supplying or satisfying this demand, then the law of supply and demand of the real, actual values or neces- sities for human existence does not apply to, nor has nothing in harmonious unity with, the supply of money. The law of the supply and demand of natural products and human consumption is interdependent on either and both and beyond human control, or is beyond the artful or cunning device of designing men, but who, knowing this, speculate on its certainty or constancy for their own dis- honest aggrandizement, but can never alter this law, as it is coexistent, coessential, coefficient and coeternal. The demand for a felicitous exchanging medium of barter may be said to resemble in part the coextensiveness of the demand of nature ; but the supply or rule or order or law of the supply of money is but a farcical parody or , 325 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS pitiable burlesque on the supply of labor power and nat- ural forces, and by its manipulators is never allowed to act in co-operant harmony with the demand for money or the supply of necessary, natural products. So when the sycophant asserts that it is the immutable and inexor- able law^ of supply and demand of nature that governs prices, he simply lies, or tries to cover his ignorance by the shadow of the bugbear of the artificially manufac- tured supply and demand of usurious conjurers, for he does, or should, know that prices are regulated by the ex- orbitant and mutable will of the usurer, b}^ regulating and keeping a vacillant and ever-insufficient supply for human requisition or demand, for he knows that up to now that the great majority have been willing to give a bushel, in the name of a peck, to preserve their honor and prove their silly honesty, but the printing press is hard at work, and it is now nearly time for the tide to go out and carr}^ along that baneful social surf, the usurer. So the following may be laid down as axioms as to the certainty and uncertainties of the natural law of suppl)^ and demand, and as to its regulation of prices: First, eternal, natural forces always constant and ever present, the supply of necessary, natural products depends only on the ability and willingness of man to expend labor power in connection with the real, actual fruits of past labor power, and this alone is the only true governor of supply. Second, the demand is but the peremptory demand of nature, ever fixed and constant and coeternal with the race, and can but be slightly ruffled, ending in human hunger or suflfering, by the machinations of an insignifi- cant minority, otherwise fundamentally supernal or be- yond human control. In order to satisfy this demand, either in the hom.e, the markets, etc., the individual must be supplied with the necessary products of nature or supplied or provided with the ability to purchase or to pay for them with legal evidences or universally recognized tokens of their meas- uring representation or figurativeness. If pjovided with this ability, mone}^ the demand is satisfied and constant, as well as the consumption, and thereby prices are main- tained, if not increased. If not provided with this ability 326 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS to purchase, the demand and consumption is thereby de- li creased, and the prices of natural products decrease or j decline, and the measuring capacity of money must in- ij crease from the insufficient amount for the supply of all. j Fourth, the supply of money at present is wholly and ! solely at the will of the usurer, and in no way governed j by the immutable and inexorable law of the supply and j demand of nature, except by the speculation of the 'i usurer, in its absolute constancy of life necessity. And in |i this way he alone is enabled to rule prices and not the j natural law of products and requirements or supply and i demand. j All animals are associative, and assemble, wander, roam, rove or ambulate and combine in bevies, clans, bands, families, flocks, droves or herds, or tribes, and of all known species or families the individual rights of the one are inviolably recognized and left sacredly undis- turbed by the other, and so it should be with that animal man, to whom only, as far as human knowledge goes, was given such attributes as thought and those peculiar guttural, nasal and labial powers of producing sound, by the diversifying of which he is able to express or com- municate the individual thought to others, commonly called language ; having this, man formed communities, nations and hired of himself delegates to assemble and frame laws, impartial alike to all in their workings, and in strict harmony with the views entertained, as expressed by the greater number. And now this intelligent tribe of a 70,000,000 family has a government known as the Republic of the United States. To the assemblage of delegates the}^ gave the name of Congress. To this Congress they gave the power to coin and issue money, alike to all, for services rendered or public improvements, or they might loan it on good se- curity, as is now loaned to the national banks or wealthy classes, who have never rendered any real, actual benefit to society for their representative of real products. It is denied to individuals, to corporations and even to the states to issue legal tender, this right being reserved to Congress alone. It is, then, the duty of Congress to issue this legal evidence of value or tokens of real wealth, 327 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS backed by good and sufficient security, so that if the first owner of the transferable note should die, that his prop- erty was good for the amount, the title to which the government had examined and vouched for. It is the duty of the government to issue or to loan this medium, devised only to render easy the barter, swapping or ex- changing of cumbrous commodities or fixed, immovable j wealth at a nominal cost, such as to the national banks | at I per cent., to every individual offering the proper ; security of realty, and 'not on the legal shadow of that i realty. ' Would 3'Ou not consider a man insane who would come I up to a bank window and ask for the loan of $ioo on \ the $ioo he now presented, and that he would pay for it ' lo per cent, per annum? Now, virtually we are doing this to-day by the workings of our present national bank- ing system. Here is a mortgage or a United States \ bond, which is transferable and bearing interest ; they are both the transcript or legal evidence of a debt. The na- ' tional bank note is the transscript or legal evidence of a second debt, based upon a first debt, the law, according to one story, or the man that printed it, did not write on it that it bore interest ; but the deputy or second-hand issuer or loaner says, ''You bet it does" ! — lo per cent, if he trades or loans it for the other evidence of debt that honestly says it pays interest. There is no essential difference between the bond, bank bill and mortgage, except that one is a partial legal tender, the others optional legal tender, and that two of them are plain and honest in their declarations or purport, the bank bill intentionally de- ceitful and dishonest, besides a visionary, legal techni- cality for lawyers to chew on and keep their jaws from rusting. If the government lends legal tender tokens to one individual as a medium of exchange at i per cent., it should loan it to all in sums to suit their convenience or security. If government persists in refusing to do this, society must repudiate all past debts and resort to individual notes and non-interest bearing for their circulating me- dium, and let the usurers borrow and loan between them- selves, for honest labor is getting tired of supporting 328 J PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS crafty wit. Government should prohibit, as intended, the giving or taking of interest for the use of money between individuals, and individuals and corporations, as money in itself and of itself is powerless of increase, and the law can only rightfully give it what it has given it — the legal or artificial power of rendering barter easy or exchange. As money is not real wealth or the crystal- lization of fruitful labor power, such as man, farm, cereals, house, etc., if any interest or tax should be paid for it, it should only be that tax required for the support of government alone, and compel all to live by honest, fruitful industry, or otherwise compel them to suffer the pangs of hunger they now inflict, by the aid of inequita- ble, deceitful laws, on those who now do honestly labor. But you say that in the silver or gold dollar that labor power is represented to the amount of $i. Yes, indeed! But you put it mildly, and, since you are a worshipper of mysticism and catch phrases, you give it that ambigu- ous, half expression intended to deceive. Not only have we one, but we have more than two dollars' worth of labor represented therein, but how? We have it as the shameful, barbarous, lasting witness of the aggregation or crystallization of labor power lost, or effort wasted, that otherwise might have been productive of fruitful benefit; yes, the genuine, existing evidence of our folly, ever jeering, mocking and ridiculing man, on the one hand, for his idiocy, and on the other for his duplicity. It may be true that the bank cashier could not live one week without an ounce of gold for a collar button, for, like all fanciful birds, he would die of grief for the want of his toy-thing or mate ; but, aside from this, where are the true or real benefits in the ounce of gold more than the ounce of iron, silver, platinum or any other like sub- stance? It is used as a money token of law, and for that use best adapted. If you are compelled to buy in European countries you can have it exchanged, if you have no real values to exchange, as those governments use it also as tokens of law, and there all its value, both intrinsic and imaginary, ends. Interest, for the true or real crystallization of fruitful or productive labor power is just in accordance with the amount of real benefit 329 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS derived by man from it. Interest for the use of money is unjust and wrong. When an individual builds himself a home, with actual labor power or with the universally acknowledged legal receipt for labor, or the fruits of labor rendered, he or she is in all justice entitled to all the benefits, or their equivalent, from that accruing therefrom, as it is the real crystallization of human labor power with the potential forces of nature combined, less the indispensable expense for the support of government for the protection of soci- ety and its property. When from any cause of a legiti- mate character the owner of such wishes to dispose of his real wealth or value and wishes to move from there to any other part or climate, they can sell it for money, or exchange it for real wealth. It is now and now only that the owner can avail him or herself of the only virtue or powers of money — the power of ex- change — when both parties are agreed as to the amount, then only can money be a legal tender or obligatory on the seller or creditor to receive it, for now the seller of the property is empowered by the law creating money virtually to transfer his house or his farm of snow from North Dakota to or for a farm of sunshine in Florida. This is all the virtue there is, or ever can be, in money, either honestly, truly or constitutionally, and, while the possessor does not himself re-exchange that for labor power or for the crystallization of labor power, or for its potentially increasing fruits, he is not entitled to any in- terest or increment for his legal factor of exchange, as he is deriving all the benefits that it can ever possess — that of exchange. The factors composing the government temporarily, who are supposed to possess average intelligence at least and be impartial, should always endeavor to lay a lawful or just premium on American homeseekers and home owners, and condemn an increase for any cunning fictive agent, such as distorted money, or for anything which does not visibly, actually or palpably increase itself or render tangible benefits to man in supplying his absolute necessities ; by doing so you will not only act in harmony with nature's laws, as she only yields to active labor 330 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS power her increase, but never to the cunningly devised abortion of unstable, vacillant, airy, human law; but you will lawfully and righteously condemn the unhealthy, abominable, accursed speculation on the deplorable con- dition and calamitous misfortunes of the honestly inclined laborer by that loathsome, hideous drone, the usurer, and if no other good resulted from such law or action the dronish usurer would learn that in order to live he must comply with the just laws of nature, and to labor and to appreciate henceforth at his true moral worth the truly magnanimous, docile laborer, who was heretofore com- pelled to support him and all his ilk, and also to practi- cally illustrate his gratitude to the previously despised laborer by stepping down from his airy bank pillar and personally invest the stereotyped picture of his now fitful fancy, money, and by his exchange of labor power and consequent creation of actual or potential benefit, then no one will grudge him his benefit or increase. A¥e only want to have and maintain a nation of active, laboring, thrifty, industrious homeseekers and homemakers, who associate for the common good of our common country and for the perpetuation of its free or freer institutions, in the hope of elevating all mankind, and not a nation of leprous, blighting usurers, who mock all the laws of God and nature. The payment of interest causes the farmer to dispense with the comforts he deserves to enjoy through honest industry, and even pinch from himself and family some of the necessities for a healthful life, in order to pay inter- est, that the drone may dwell in luxury, thus virtually closing the factory doors, and now depriving his brother la- borers of the power to purchase from his sufficient whole- some food to support that glowing spirit of freedom and transmit by a healthy regeneration a race of God-imaged and gifted freemen. All — all this that the laws of nature be depsised and contemned to constitute a distinct class of human beings, whose special attribute shall be known to industrious, mortal man as total exemption from toil and death. Oh! what an attempted burlesque on the divine law of nature and her equity! Then, away with inter- est or increment on or for money! That interest that 331 ' PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ' is society's fungoidal, poisonous blight on society, destroying y and prostituting the true virtues or functions of money and '" rendering it, money's cruel, cancerous curse on money! {, STATE LAW. ' I Interest seems to have such cetaceously cauterizing or | brutally fly-blistering effects on its victims in general | that it ever has been the hideous bugbear and terrifying '' nightmare of all thoughtful legislators, statesmen and writers ever since Moses was a minor, even down to the admission of the last State admitted into our Union — Wyoming, July 13, 1890. In the forty-eight states and territories, but five agree on the legal rate and the rate allowed by contract. Of the seven last admitted, beginning with 1876, but two of them — the Dakotas — agree as to the rates of interest, but those even disagree on the years allowed on judgments. Some states place a penalty of forfeiture for what they are pleased to term usury, which is interest only, as all interest is dishonest, unjust, and consequently illegal, as against all the laws of nature and equity, and eleven of them, in order to get clear of the meshes of that swamp- ing angel, interest or usury, virtually legalize it by break- ing its slender chain and turning it loose, to use their own expression, "at any rate." So conflicting were their dreams of the righteousness of interest and their waking, honest, truthful, just and convincing judgment of its iniquitous oppression, wrong and injustice that, in the sequent confounding confusion, they lost all powers of discernment and knowledge of the true, figurative, legal functions of money, and the real intrinsic value attributes of all real, potential, pro- ductive forces and matter, and in their legal raving treat- ed money as real wealth, and to he who shuns all risk and social obligations by loaning it, ever their shameful and lasting confusion and disgrace, it must be recorded they allowed him interest for its safe keeping and certain or vouched-for return, and on that which he was thereby exempted from the payment of any taxes, which real 332 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS wealth had to bear, in order that money might retain its legal-exchanging sole value. Now the entangling question arises, Are those state laws treating money as wealth or realty, lawful, just or equitable, truly impartial and constitutional? Consider- ing money in its truly scientific and justly social sense, as the impartially fiducial fiat of society, expressed by law, creating its legal factor of exchange, leaving out the virtue or powers of yield or interest, which is extrinsic from, and cannot be in harmony with, the laws of nature, and wholly beyond the fallible, assumed powers of man. From this standpoint interest for the use of money, as the legal exchanging receipt for actual labor power, is radi- cally wrong and unjust and the base perversion and abominable assumption of human law is pitiably apparent to all. But if, by some supernatural, mysterious power, man could frame a law granting to money special, beneficial, intrinsic attributes, which it does not now possess, such as procreant powers, for even to create, produce or increase its tokens or fractional evidences actual labor power has to be called into requisition now, which plainly proves that nothing will or can increase or is lawfully entitled to increase except actual labor power with nature or potentially fruitful matter, as man can produce from gold a drinking cup, etc., or a token of legal exchange or tender, each of which should be duly recognized for their beneficial utilization as conveyancers, the one conveying the chyling or chyming milk or caustic gorganizing gall, the other conveying the abbreviated decree of the greater number's law. And that such a new law also possesses the supernal powers of banishing from the human mind all doubt concerning its justice and indelibly impressed on the minds of all men the belief or faith that money w^as of itself a potential element of increase. Even then the question of the constitutionality of money being enti- tled to a settled, or any, interest or increase, is open, wholly unsettled and extremely pendulous, and by the rich man held as execrably abhorrent. For controversial purposes let us say that money is pro- ductive of increase, and therefore entitled to draw or 333 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS supinely suck from the sacred teats of Mother Nature, inter- est. Now, then, we find all of the forty-eight states and territories, also the District of Columbia, fixing a legal rate of interest for whatever moneys or contracts that are undecided or undetermined, or on which the state may be called on in any way for a post jurisdiction, two of them allowing 5 per cent, as the lawful or legal rate, twenty-six of them 6 per cent., twelve of them 7 per cent., five of them 8 per cent, two of them 10 per cent, and only one of them 12 per cent., or average bank earn- ings, or an average of 6.7 per cent, for all. Now, how. is it that all that diversification, fixed rate, etc., are all legal, righteous, just, etc., while the following opposite divergencies are strictly just and lawful between the loan- ing individual and society and between society and the loaning individual : Thirty-seven of the states and terri- tories legalize the interest on contracts ; twenty-six of them allow, as legal and just from one and one-eighth as much to twice as much on legal contracts as they do on legal contracts. Those twenty-six states allow, as by their just financial laws, based on and framed after heav- enly or divine law, an average of 6.^ per cent, on law-decid- ed, honest debts, and allow an average of 9.4 per cent, on law-decided, honest debts, the former being the legal rate on post-contracts determined by the state, the latter being the legal rate on contracts made by the usurer, the state establishing him as such by allowing him a rate that it does not judge just or honest in cases wherie it is called in to decide. Now, eleven of the states allow an equal share or rate on contracts made or undetermined. The other eleven states seem to have become so mulishly muddled by this hazy mess of mazy financial glume that, in their brain-mellowing madness, they hysterically cried from the fence corners, the roadside and chimney tops, in soul-stirring, heart-rending, agonizing tones, in- terest on contracts legalized at any rate. Oh, consistent justice! Art thou not a sweet cented jewel? The producer denies the right of increment for the use of money. The capitalist worships this right as a divine inspiration, revealed through human law, and contends that all must recognize the right of the state to deter- 334 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS mine the rate of increase and permanently establish the same by law. Then, if money is wealth or not, has not the state the inalienable right to fix the increase or yield to be derived as his share by the exploiter of any wealth, or money, or money with actual labor, invested in any in- dustry, particularly when the exploitation, or industry, or corporation is carried on or operated by the special recognition .or charter of the State? If the profit for money be determined and fixed by law in one case, most assuredly it has that right in all cases. If any more than a profit of 9.4 per cent, be prohibited in one case, it should, and must, be in all. Then why not enact laws prohibiting any more profit to be derived by the owners of the factory than 9.4 per cent, per annum on the money actually in- vested in the factor, the remaining increment to be divid- ed between the creators of all wealth, the laborers, in the factory? On money invested in active industry only should interest be allowed as an incentive to honest productive activity, and more so still while the crystallization of labor power, such as the factory, etc.,. is taxed for the support of all recognized government. But, instead of such a just and wholesome law of social science being applied and enforced, the capitalist is aided and abetted in piling up his profit by cutting down the miserable pit- tance allowed by him to those without whom increase is impossible, the laborer, in order that capital may receive a hundredfold interest, which is blasphemously called lawful, just and honest profit or yield, but which is das- tardly snatched and torn by the demon paws of human law from its rightful owner, creator and only possible producer, the laborer. And this unregulated curse of interest or profit for capi- tal versus labor is what causes some honestly inclined advocates of labor to seek the primal cause for that threatening, widening gap between millionaires and men- dicants in the workings of a protective tariff. But while, through the operations of an import duty, it may accel- erate your quota of millionaires by maintaining a higher current price of all commodities, particularly those fin- ished for consumption by human skill and labor, but its 335 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS abolishment would not relatively decrease the abnormal ranks of either without regulating by law the profits to be retained on otherwise all risked, invested capital, when those profits arose or amounted to a certain sum, say, lo per cent., to be retained by the investor and the remain- der to be divided among those who primarily made possi- ble the prosperous yield, the investor to receive no yield, as is now the case, until the yield overbalanced the cost ; but this accursed interest for the use of money without risk must have a profit, whether the borrower's yield balances the cost or not on the illegitimate, scurfy, scur- rilous plea of, "Well, it was not the lender's fault" ! and also by abolishing by law^ any increment or interest whatever on unrisked, non-personally or actively in- vested capital or money. All those who allowed their labor or productions of labor to accumulate and lay dor- mant or latent in labor's universally recognized and legal exchangeable receipt and tender, to be taxed on that money in order to support that government which, by its existence and continuous mandate, maintained the legal tender qualities in that money, instead of compelling industrious society to pay them an exorbitant tax on ac- count of their killing beauty and seductive ways. Amen ! The tariff duty must be considered a nationally inter- national measure and has little to do with the states, or with the donations doled out by the employer to the employed. It enables the employer, whether he does so or not, to pay higher wages than he could in the absence of such a duty. Whether he pays it or not, or does not pay one-half what he should, strictly are those questions coming within the adjudication of the state in the man- agement of its own internal home affairs, and the tariff duty is as guileless of guilt as your state laws regulating increase and profit are guilty of connivance and omis- sion. Regulate your profits on corporate investments, and away with that hideous, ghastly, grinning gorgon of interest for the use of that idle, dainty, timid, gazing, theatrical ghost — money! If it is meet and just, wise, advisable and lawful to regulate the profit, yield or in- crease to the individual or corporate loaner, by all society and between all society and the individual or corporate 336 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS loaner of money, how many thousand times more so is it i to stipulate and regulate by law the increase, yield, profit i or interest for the individual or corporate investor by I or from all society, of which he is but the merest, infini- I tesimal fraction ? How infinitely disgraceful, wrong and ! iniquitous is that law which forces the one transitory I human being to the preposterous ranks of the millionaire j in a short score of years, and likewise forces and tramples I thousands of identically congeneric beings, through hun- i ger or the terrible uncertainty of to-morrow's crackling ! crust, to a premature grave, and millions to the ranks of, to them, undeserved, mvsterious, brain-paralyzing pov- ' In the hope of finding another intrinsic-value excuse ! for interest on money, besides money to increase with '.. age, and money to bear 2 per cent, increase from birth, either, to offset the usurer's grab, we've sta3^ed awake o' nights ever since the "last flood of light," torturing the brain in vain for some plain, earthly reason or other excusable measure to happily apply. At last we sighted a mythical island in this great, transparent ocean, to which we anchored, to, giveusarest, and named it ]\Iount Wheraruat,- and on relaxatingly fishing around through the pure fluid we caught another whaling excuse for in- terest on money, of such ponderous dimensions that in order to translate its parts we were forced to anchor it to the island also, and this was the sum total of our haul, bones, belly, blubber and all : ''Let all politicians join and assemble together on a Good — black — Friday and, with a unanimous and pro- digious heigh, ho ! proclaim : 'From this day on, for ever, each separate piece of money shall entitle the holder to a first-class cabin passage — no steerage — and on landing a warranted, ground floor, first-class reserved seat — no gallery— in heaven' " ! Now, should any heartless grum- bler be found to grudge interest on money possessing such all-absorbing, delightful privileges, then we will pledge our (what?) honor to hire Uncle Harry George's mule to kick his brains out — not Uncle Harry's brains, nor the mule's own brains, but those of the mule's father, that macratous miser. This measure would afford to the 337 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS 1 angelic usurer any amount of seats on which to cock up ' his feet and spread out his spotless wings, while for the 1 happy, industrious mortal, that majestic one would be sufficient, to which he was entitled by the heretofore de- spised, silver-buzzard-dollar. And if you can find any more logical excuses we are all attention. Lest the farmer of paragraph 675 would forget the equitable beau- ties that each industry obtains from the sapient sanctity of our financial laws and their resultant working sim- plicity, we will quote for him the statements of Presi- dent G. G. Williams of the Chemical National Bank of New York City to the Congressional Committee on Bank- ing and Currency, on December 15, 1894, regarding the petty, prevalent, privative profits of banking, in contrast with the lavish, legitimate, liberal, lionlike levy of lucre of lucky, laborious toil. ''Mr. Williams was questioned as to the conditions of his own bank. He said its capital was $300,000. It had a surplus of $6,000,000 ; the undivid- ed profits were more than $1,000,000. The deposits reached $30,000,000, probably the largest in the United States, if not in the world. The dividends were 15 per cent, annually. The bank stock sold for $4,300 per share of $100." Now, take out your pencil and calculate your own conclusions, for if we dared to make any comment on that bank's profits it would not only be considered, but be justly condemned as an unwarranted, unpardonable insult, even to the most dudish, insipid, silly ignoramus. 338 I PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS i PART IX. SUGGESTIVE AFTER-THOUGHTS. The chafing critic. — Duty sufficient for bounty. — Two more de- partments of government. — Department production and distribution and regulate corporate profit. — Government banking department. — Constitutional amendments. — Twelve vice-presidential districts. — Elections and law. — Legislation. — Vacancies. — Army reorganization. — National volunteers. — Retrenchment for ignorant bunkum only. — Irrigation, public buildings, navy, etc. — Profit and interest, not tariff. Our palliation, — Hole-y Saint George. — Packenham. — Political pol- troon. — Pandering press. — Lincoln. — Plowman, another pint of oats. — Evil abroad. — Brilliant sparks. — Angelic reader. — Doggerel No. 2. As we proceeded with this faultfinding, prosaic, dis- quisitional monologue, we have fancied in our dreams that we have long since seen the cavilling, chafing, cha- grined critic, who was forced to drag himself along thus far from sheer lack of luscious, love literature, ready to perturbably and vociferously inquire what other reme- dies we proposed for a more equitable distribution of the products of labor, and what other changes we would wish him to make, in order to render justice to all and curb the now untrammelled, passions of the politician and his patriarchal, public financial plunderer. We will deferentially reply that we would have offered them be- fore now were it not for the hopes that we entertained that, through the intense, disgusting suspense caused his callous, carping brain by the delay, it would become so heated through excitement as to render it so highly sensitive and eminently susceptible to impressions that, by an inadvertent pressure of the button, there might be, through '^ome mysterious agency, an incipient copy of an idea left thereon, which might tend to enlist his sympathy and future action in support of the just and ineffaceable cause of equal rights to all and special privileges to none. Besides those suggestions or intimations previously laid down, and all those you may infer, as well as what we may reiterate, we will offer a few more, which, we be- 339 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS lieve, will be worthy at least of your serious condemna- tion, if not further investigation and final adoption. We would suggest the levying of an import duty suffi- cient only to pay a bonus on competing home production, in order to enable the producer to pay American wages to American labor, the bonus to decrease as the pro- duction increased, until it became sufficient for home consumption ; then the premium to be taken off and a sufficient duty to be imposed on the foreign commiodity in order to provide a sufficient margin for profit to the home producer over the extra cost of American labor; the duty then collected, if any, to go to the general appro- priation fund, and for every dollar sent out of the coun- try for luxuries, such as champagne, silks, velvets, Brus- sels carpets, jewelry, gew-gaws, etc., etc., one dollar for dollar, to be collected and placed in the general expense fund of the nation, as well as on all that sent or paid out for foreign goods, when as serviceable or of similar inherent value can be produced by home production, when sufficient in quantity for all home consumption. He who would not agree to such a proposition, we suspect he must be a native born alien and would be glad to see him take his departure for better or worse and the rest of the ceremony. There should be at least two more departments of gov- ernment created — one for general production and distri- bution, by land and water, by steam and electricity and all other forces, empowered to regulate corporate profits, by actual cost of production and distribution, to agree with the actual profits of individuals employed in the same undertakings, or in any legitimate industry, as the states now regulate the profit or interest on contracts, judgments, judges, loans, etc., etc. Another department of banking by the nation or government, empowered to issue and circulate money in sufficient volume to supply the legitimate demands of commerce, by or in payment for profitable public improvements and by loaning it to every citizen applying for a loan and able to furnish suffi- cient security, at cost of issuance and such government banking; and to allow all citizens to deposit all their money therein, should they desire to, and compel all 340 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS citizens not banking under similar conditions and rate of interest to deposit all their circulating medium in such government institutions or depositories, except four or five times the amount of the per capita circulation not needed for instand or immediate industrial transfer, to enable the government to more accurately determine the required volume demanded for actual circulation, and which would also prevent that usurer's dreaded bugbear of the miser's hoarding, and would work no hardship on others, as all now deposit their surplus money. This would make ten departments in all. Then divide the nation into twelve vice-presidential districts, with as near as possible the one-twelfth of the population' in each. Then a majority of the voters in each district to elect a vice-president of the United States from the district. The twelve vice-presidents so elected, on assem- bling at the National Capitol on March the first of every fourth year after such election, to proceed to choose by a vote of seven or eight, one of their own number, who shall act as executive officer of the government and pre- side at all daily meetings from 6 a. m. to 8 a. m. and from 6 p. m. to 8 p. m., of the council of vice-presidents, but whose veto shall not be binding and who shall not have the nominating or appointing power, except the one- twelfth of those arising out of the administration of the affairs of each department, or those accredited to the dis- trict from which he has been elected, to w^hich one- twelfth of the appointments may be allowed of all grades in every department, and who may be regularly deposed from president to vice-president, for any cause, by a vote of seven of the vice-presidents. When so deposed, one of their number shall be elected by seven votes to replace the deposed, when the deposed shall replace the elected as chief or head of the department from which the newly elected president had been chosen. When the selection for chairman or president is made and confirmed by a vote of seven, the vice-president shall proceed to draw lots for secretary or chief ofiicer of the several departments. Before entering on their duties as cabinet officers they may interchange their lots for departments by the consent of the allotted choice and a 341 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS majority vote of themselves. The vice-presidents, or' heads of departments, shall have the nomination or ap- pointment of the eleven-twelfths of all officers or em- ployees under their departmental jurisdiction, which appointees shall be selected pro rata for all grades, accord- ing to vote last cast from each state or part of state in the several vice-presidential districts. All appointees in that grade requiring confirmation shall be confirmed by the Senate, and a vote of six vice-presidents and their commission, signed by the president. Should the nomi- nee be rejected for cause, the head of department will continue nominating until the position is filled from his selection, the cause for non-confirmation to be : Disquali- fication on account of the lack of education deemed neces- sary to creditably fulfil the duties pertaining to the office, but the chief test for qualification to be a strict com- pliance and guarantee with and for the provisions laid down in paragraphs 508-11, regarding true or bonafide American citizenship. Any measure passed by the House and Senate to come to the vice-presidential council for approval ; when ap- proved, the president to sign it and order its record as probationary law ; if disapproved of by a vote of seven of the vice-presidential council it is returned, with sug- gested amendments, to the house or body from where it originated. The salary of the vice-presidents to be $20,- 000 per annum; the president's to be $21,000; the term to be four years. Presidents and vice-presidents to be ineligible for re-election. Any civil officer holding any civil office above $1,000 per annum to be ineligible for re- appointment to any office yielding over $500 per annum, the judiciary not excepted, as while it may take two cen- turies to learn law, full justice may be learned in less than two days. The president or any vice-president may be impeached for breach of any constitutional act or law, or for drunk- enness, sedition or treason ; a conviction for either must be sustained by a vote of six of the vice-presidents. A motion by one vice-president without a second to be suffi- cient to institute impeachment proceedings. If either be found guilty of the charge they shall be immediatelv 342 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS deposed and removed from office, such deposition to entail the loss of all the rights of citizenship. Should a vacancy occur in the presidencv or any of the vice-presidencies, a call to be issued by' the acting- president of the United States, as soon as possible there- after, for all the state senators and state representatives of the state legislatures who represent in part any and all of the states within the vice-presidential district, to assemble at some designated central point or place and proceed to elect a vice-president of the United States for the district. The governor of the state wherein the desig- nated place is situate shall preside over the elective assemblage, without having a vote. Having been duly called to order and having proceeded in the regular order of business, of credentials, etc., they shall then proceed by an aye and nay viva voce vote, to vote for all of the nominees, nominations not to close until a candidate or successor is elected by a majority of those present, duly accredited electors, no proxy, and voting. All electors present must cast a vote for or against each candidate or nominee. When any candidate receives a majority of the votes of those present and voting, he shall be de- clared elected and nominations declared closed. When the governor presiding signs his credentials, which must also be signed by all those voting for him, and may be signed by those other electors, if they shall so elect, when the election shall be declared completed and the district elective congress dissolved. The elected successor to proceed to the Capital of the United States and present his credentials to the council of vice-presidents, whose acceptance by a vote of six, as to the authenticity and genuineness of credentials, etc., shall be sufficient to decide, whereupon he shall be duly sworn and installed as vice-president of the United States. Then an election for president or the confirmation of the president pro tem., to be proceeded with in due pre- scribed form. Should a vacancy occur in the presidency the council shall immediately assemble and proceed to choose, appoint or elect a president pro tem., to be presi- dent of the United States until he is further confirmed and his successor duly elected and inaugurated. The 343 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS senatorial term to be four years; United States senators to be elected by direct vote of the people, one-half to be elected biennially. Only one senator to be allowed to 1,000,000 inhabitants in each state or fraction of a million. The Senate to have the power or authority to institute proceedings of impeachment of the president or vice- president, as is the case now made and provided for im- peachment. Also, the impeachment and removal of any member or members of its own body ; also the same, with any members of the House of Representatives ; and if any such are deposed a vacancy shall be declared and an election ordered, as in cases of other vacancies now made and provided. The House of Representatives to have power to impeach and remove, by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected, the president, vice-presidents, sena- tors and any member or members of their own body, similarly with the United States Senate, for unconstitu- tional or unlawful conduct or action. A petition presented or sent to the council of vice- presidents and duly signed by two-thirds of the members of any state legislature, to be sufficient to order and authorize that body to remove, for cause, any member or members of the Senate or House from such a state. The petition must be accompanied with reasonable proof that the accused were absent on other business any time during the legislative session, other than on family sick- ness or death, or for having entered the legislative cham- ber in a state of intoxication from drugs or liquor. Any measure or law passed by Congress and signed by the president and of record, as well as all those not con- firmed by the council, but again returned by Congress, in either case, to yet remain inoperative as respited statu- tory paradigms of law, on that particular affair or social measure, in order the better to give the masses full oppor- tunity to intelligently and calmly discuss their merits and features, until the people shall have voted for its adoption or rejection, a majority of such votes for it or against to be final and decide whether it shall become law or not. If the majority favors the law, it shall take effect as soon as the official vote is counted and certified; if the opposite be the case, the law shall be void. If by the vote 344 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS of six of the vice-presidents it shall be deemed for the best interest of the whole people to submit a law for their ratification, as soon as practicable after its passage by both houses, a special ratification day may be announced for its adoption or rejection, otherwise ratification day to be held on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November of each year, to pass or vote on all other laws within the interim. Each state to have the constitutional right of intro- ducing, through their representatives, one bill at least each year, which must be accompanied by a petition ask- ing for its consideration and signed by legal electors of the state only. The proposed bill, if signed by 100,000 electors or more, to be considered as of primary import- ance, and in its own special due order to have precedence over all other measures or bills. If accompanied by less than 100,000 signatures, it to be considered as of second- ary importance, but to have precedence over any meas- ure or bill introduced by any individual member of either house. For the introduction of state bills, for the first one each year, to insure its consideration in due order, to be filed by the first of February of each year. If not filed by that date to take its place in regular order on the calen- dar to be known as bills by the state. All state bills to be voted on finally within one month of first reading in either house. If a bill should fail of passage, its failure not to debar any state from introducing a similar bill in that year, or any subsequent year. Another suggestion that might prove of social benefit, without extra expense, would be something like the fol- lowing outline': To reduce the standing army to seven regiments of infantry, three regiments of cavalry, and two regiments of artillery, with twelve companies to each regi- ment and 100 enlisted men to each company; also one captain, one first and two second lieutenants, six ser- geants and eight corporals to each company. Two majors, one lieutenant-colonel and colonel to each regi- ment. As a substitute for the reduction enroll one regiment from each state for each million or part of a million of 345 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS inhabitants in each state in the Union as volunteer troops, as national state troops, with the same number of men, companies, non-com. and commissioned officers to each regiment as those of the permanent troops, to be offi- cered in part by those officers of the line temporarily retired on half pay from the regular army, who should receive 25 per cent., except in time of war, over full pay when in active service training and drilling the volun- teers'. Vacancies for officers to be filled from selection and election by the companies, whose choice, then to be recommended by the governors of the respective states to the secretary of war, who issues a commission, signed by the president, and from the regular army by the secre- tary of war, but no more than five officers of the regular army to be assigned any regiment of volunteers at one time. The president not having power to grant commis- sions to civilians, except those previously dismissed or cashiered from the service, and to be returned to the regiment from which they were cashiered. One-fourth of the troops to be mounted as cavalry in the far North, West and Southwest; two companies of each and every regiment, infantry and cavalry, to be drilled, equipped and mounted as artillery, each man to furnish his own horse, for which he receives fifty cents per day and rations while in the annual rendezvous, but to be drilled as infantry also. The volunteers to be mob- ilized or called up for five weeks each year, during Decem- ber, November, January and February, about twenty-five regiments to be up every month of the four. Five na- tional camps to be established — two South, two West and one North. Term of enlistment to be three years, with privilege of resigning by giving ninety days' notice to the regimental adjutant and governor of the state. The pay of privates to be $1.50 per day, rations and uni- form while in active service, with privilege of taking: home or leaving in any armory all small arms and equip- ments ; one suit of fatigue uniform to be furnished every year, and a peremptory pass over all lines of railroads or other transportation for the volunteer, both going to and returning from the rendezvous. The governors of states shall have the power and authority to call out the volun- 346 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS teers of his own state to quell disturbance and preserve the peace, but the state shall bear such expense. Army officer on half pay to be subject and governed by army regulations and articles of war, the same as when on leave of absence. One-half a million dollars to be annually given as prizes to enlisted men for marksmanship, and the same amount in prizes for exemplary conduct and gen- eral proficiency. The age for volunteers from twenty to sixty. No re-enlistments. This reorganization would cost no more than our pres- ent army does now, and it would reduce the refuge for semi-loafers and quasi-egoistic aristocrats, or, rather, Union paupers from cradle to grave. That rigor, rigma- role and ritual rendering human beings through com- parative isolation and efifete, obsolescent formulas, in- human. Away with it, and establish in its stead, or create new friendships and associations between the flowers and the force and the freemen of the North, South East and West, and volatilize those visionary dividing lines by allowing the industrial classes of the frozen fields of Dakota to exchange ideas and greetings by eye, tongue and hand with those of the egg-roasting sands of Florida and those of the SAvamps of Louisiana with those of the mountain peaks of Idaho. Give them a chance once in a lifetime to behold and in reality touch the grandeurs and glories of our indivisible and indestructible Republic. There is another way in which the nation could be benefited or its interests advanced, with benefits to all and .injuries to none — by abandoning for the time being the democratic, idiotic policy of retrenchment for bunkum only, by appropriating $100,000,000 per annum for five year and $50,000,000 per annum for five years more, to build deep water harbors, seacoast defenses, irrigating canals, postoffices, etc., etc., and also building up a navy worthy of the nation, our great nation, not the nation of the low, cunning, avaricious, selfish, windy, political par- tisan, or the fulsome, noisy howl of parties, both Demo- cratic and Republican. For it is and must be above the conception of our tiresome party man, and ever be, our great American nation ! For it is well known to all that if we had the initiative and referendum, the pitiable, par- 347 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tisan politician would die the death of the Druidish monk, whose holy hotch-potch could not now sound more hollow. This would only amount to $750,000,000, or about $10 per capita. In the end we would have the improvements and the money, too. The government to issue United States Treasury notes in payment to American labor and for American material only, the notes to be a full legal ten- der for all debts, dues or demands, both public and pri- vate, and any citizen or resident property holder within the United States who would refuse them in payment of any debt whatever, to not only forfeit the right of col- lection, but to be arrested by any officer of the law or citizen and hurried before any judge of competent jurisdiction, who, on finding the accused guilty, through competent evidence, to sentence him to at least five years' confinement, both unpardonable and non-commutable, in any military prison of the United States; the Treasury notes to be interchangeable for legal tender gold or silver dollars, at the option of the government, whenever there were such dollars in the Treasury unappropriated. Increase the pay of men-of-wars men, as also their lib- erties arid privileges. Make the ship an ideal American home when at sea or on active duty. Curtail the author- ity and supreme haughtiness of the officers, both in port and at sea. An ounce of premonition is worth a ton of nitro-glycerine. Reduce the pay of all government offi- cials and employees, except the navy, 20 to 30 per cent., in order to lessen the ever-increasing, direful dangers of that widening chasm of discrepancy in the remuneration for their hygeian, sedentary, clerical or exquisite employ- ment, and that of those producers, to whom we owe so much, besides what mere pittance that they now receive, and still decreasing, for their omnifarious, overt, outbal- ancing, operose occupations. There are a great many well-intentioned, honest, and on other subjects to which they have given more attention and deeper investigation, and well-informed, thoughtful people, who ascribe all the woes of the weary toiler to the existence of the protective tariff duty, but its workings are only indirect in creating and maintaining those omi- 348 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS nous, ophidian obstacles to their individual and universal well-being, such as trusts, combines or omnifarious mo- nopolies, whose frown even, as it were, is sufficient to extinguish, lacerate or incinerate the incipient, inept, patriotic impulses of that drivelling majority of our legis- lators. But as we are of the opinion that they seek the snake in the small and wrong swamp, we have attempted to give our amusingly benighting views in other parts of this book, particularly in that part treating on that thieving, thirsting, tithing, thralling, theurgical tax com- monly called interest, which, perforce, must occupy the sleeping dreams and the waking thoughts of the would- be statesman of the future, if he ever hopes to swing a lady partner in the next dance. In palliation for the pervertible, platitudinous proposi- tions plashing through from paragraph 708, which may invoke to ire the explosive sensitiveness of the partisan, platonic patriot, we will humbly offer the following fee- ble, fallible, froward fantasy. The fathers of the country, and they were legion, in whose minds originated and grew until realized the thoughts of the liberty and equal- ity of man, were too much occupied in endeavoring to divert, ward off and battle with the, to us now, inappre- ciable, physical and mental, financial and political difficul- ties that they were compelled to wade through, no won- der if the brain was swamped at intervals during the conspiring conception, bloody birth, blessed baptism and inspiring infancy of our glorious, young Republic to coolly, calmly and consistently draft a code that would need no addition or change to cripple the cragged, cryptic, craftiness of designing, arrant knaves, who are found in all communities, and, as we are told, had their prototype even in heaven. A code for a country, the prodigious, potentially fertile extent, and now immensity of wealth and population of which, even in their wildest, hopeful day dreams, such never entered their minds to conceive ! Of their faults, magnanimity was the principal ! Their judgment was blurred by their ancestral love for poster- ity, in presuming that their descendants to the end of time could approximately appreciate what sacrifices were necessary to enable them to hand down that priceless 349 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS boon to their offspring — that indelible declaration, ma- tured manifestation and rapturous realization of free- dom! They who were compelled to battle, not only with the culminating maturation of the feudal, servile and king- divine ideas inculcated, instilled and inured in the minds of the millions by their regal preachers, teachers and tyrant masters for the mind-staggering stretch of cen- turies, and those ideas, only more effectually conglutinated and composed by the few previously sporadic, sacrificial and ineffectual attempts to establish and maintain a gov- ernment by and for the whole people. With those minds inumbrated with the ever-present, awe-inspiring specta- cle of the countless soldiers and armed ships, not only ever ready to obey the mandates of tyrants, and execute torturing death to the doubter of divine-right doctrines, but as well to make a conquering, confiscating raid on their weaker neighbors, for the righteous reason of regal- ing their forces and prevent their becoming rough or rusty. They who were also forced to fight, unaided and alone (with the singularly peculiar exception of a few daring, patrician philanthropic foreigners, like Lafayette and Kos- ciusko, whose memories will be revered by all lovers of free- dom as long as the mighty water of two gigantic oceans, in thousand-mile stretches, lave the shores of our majestic, mundane expanse), with a treasury that would not now be sufficient to give entree to anyone to any of the hun- dreds of the sacrilegiously so-called select circles (but what a parody on life purchased equality!) with a pitiable army, half-armed, half-clothed and half of many other things, but pathetically patriotic ; with a few unarmed fishing smacks and schooners, but historically unequalled, daring, patriotic sailors, to meet and fight to a finish a nation whose insignificantly honorable or brave achieve- ments were so excelled and exceeded by her cunning duplicity and unbroken chain of treachery that she could struttingly and vainly boast that, by the Grace of God and the hole-y Saint George, she was mistress of the sea, and that the sun never set on her plundering possessions. Indeed, such was then that insidious, interloping, tin-y 350 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS isle of to-day ! Not only did she fight with all the multi- form forces then known to modern warfare of the high- est ranking nation, our little, but inexpressibly brave, army of men, fighting for liberty, country, family and home, but she fought them, cherishing a malice, hatred and contempt, which she fondly nourishes for us to-day, the depth of which can be but inadequately judged from the address of General Packenham some thirty-five years after she was expelled and her desecrating marks ex- punged from whatever they defiled. Packenham's blas- phemous badinage to his troops at New Orleans was: "Men, your reward for gallant services to-day shall be American beauty and booty"! Packenham is gone, but still lives on, rankling deep in the hearts of all true Ameri- can freemen — the answering clang to that fiendish harangue ringing, in loathing parts, oh, that old, libidi- nous demon! They in whose ranks were hundreds of such unwaver- ing, brave and patriotic men as Franklin, Payne, Henry, Washington, etc. What an odd combination ! Such poor, plain, humble men, with such pure, lofty, noble souls, fill- ing the foremost literary, social and financial ranks of their ever-edifying time! They needed no restraining formulas or fiats in their constitution to stay satanic greed and gallop in chasing the ignis fatuus and fan- tastic power. Such men, in whom the pure springs of patriotism welled up their heads and hearts to overflow- ing, and flooding their vision from foreseeing even the possibility of the present, perfidious politician. Such men, on whose brains the encaustic impression of their Consti- tution was written by the liquid-lightning-fire of liberty! They needed no reminder of their duty to their fellow man, their country and their God ! If our unjust un-American economic laws of the past thirty years did not render it possible for unconscionable capital or ululating, urticating, unciform-nosed usurers to dictate to our purchasable, predally perfidious poli- ticians what plastic, pendulous," persuasible personages to place before the hoodwinked multitudes as their nomi- nees for president, who are nominated and announced amid a storm of frothy, fulsome, polyphonous praise, 351 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS whjch is forthwith reverberated to abominable loath- someness by the truckling, trafficking, tumorous editor until the voter finds himself between the devil and the deep, mad sea, and in his bewilderment and desperation with the delusive hope of bettering his condition, con- cludes to make what appears to him a crushing change, only to become soon crushingly convinced that of all the evils that threaten the perpetuation of free institutions his alternating choice represented the most, and then to realize that those whom the lecherous, libelling, mercenary press conemptuously denounces as abortive alarmists, blasting, blaring bums, calamity howlers, communists, cranks, hoboes, idiots, socialists and tramps, were the only true prophets and apostles, as also the living witness, denouncing the crimes of inhuman monsters and shedding light on the immortal truths of genuine American inde- pendence. We might need no changes in, or amendments to, our pure, simple, God-inspired Constitution were it not that such divine elements and expressed thought were inap- plicable, from lack of exacting and binding, economic and other social distinct terms, to stay and prevent the destitution and ruin now staring us in the face, through the unbridled, headlong, bounding strides of capital — that is, the reaved aggregation of unpaid labor — towards cen- tralization, with its threatening elimination of equality and liberty, and to retard the revolting, reverse regres- sion of the millions of titular freemen to the resurgent ranks of the robbed and ragged rifTrafT. We might need no change in it if we now possessed that honest, fearless, faithful, patriotic press our parents once enjoyed, that was ever ready to denounce in unmeasured, unmistakable terms the perfidy and schemes of the paltry politicians and his polite, pilfering, pampered patron. With but few exceptions, what have we now but a horde of hireling, lying, advertising sheets, v/hose mock- ing displays of fantastic and hieroglyphic plasters add countless millions of useless, barefaced, robbing expense on the meagre consumption of the poor producer of all wealth, the laborer, and whose every column and parry- 352 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ing page of sound social alethiolog}^ are purchasable by either plundered pay or pappy patronage ; the mercenary mentor of the paying notoriety seeker; the venomous viper that is untiring in its efforts to undo what that silent, serious scythe of sophistry is and has been doing for bettering the condtion of all mankind, the printing press. That simple contrivance, with what complex and immeasurable possibilities; that unconscious, uncontrol- lable and unfathomable titanic agent, whose predestined potency in its dioramic dissemination of truths, as the instructor and promoter of the autonomy and equality of man, despite its dastardly doltish desecration by the sneering, slavish sophisms and silvery supercilious song of praise for scabrous, social sin by its snobbish, sniv- elling scribblers, all of which, if unchecked, must in- evitably wind up, as is plainly discernible to all observers and students of the results and the true analysis of the principles and attributes of mind, matter and truth, in the depopulation of the earth or the immutable establish- ment of the universal equality and brotherhood of man! Yes, for that snobbish, sniggling, sordid scribbler, his day is fast declining, as the average, reader now enter- tains a cutting contempt for his ectypical, extolling effu- sions of his partisan, political precepts and pompish patrons. Ninety-nine of every hundred of even only mediocre intelligence now, in taking up a copy of the labor-dogging, bigdoodle, drabbling, drossy dailies and their sleepy, hebdomadal harriers, are disposed to wink with their lame, left-handed ear when poring over the beguiling editorial or Associated Press dispatch, doctored by dizzy, drabbling ducklings, which indeed are calculated, regard- ing their incitement to his sensibilities, to be as truly diuretic as they are diurnal and diverse. So there is no hope for relief from this quarter, as the marts for the fair expression of public opinion — the news market — is by ever-vigilant capital wholly monopolized, and he who would dare raise his voice or use his pen for a just recom- pense to the producer would be stifled and find himself openly ostracised. 353 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS We would need no change in it were it possible for the masses to select from their own ranks any one of the thousands who abound th ^rein of such men as Washing- ton, Jefferson, Jackson or Lincoln. The Lincoln who in touch of hand and thought was in unison with the honest, toiling, 'broad-minded, progressive, patriotic American; who, although the country was involved in one of the most deplorable and depleting wars of history, by his upright and faithful patriotism, thwarted, as long as it was possible to him, those life and death dealing financial enemies of our country ! He whose acts, with them, form an eternal illustration for all future contrast of fearless honesty with cowardly expediency ! Who to that bane of progress, the Eastern, egoistic nabob, appeared as a huge, ungainl}^, indefinable or enigmatical apathist, be- cause he refused to worship at their shrine. But to the masses, who, as of him, understood him, he was the predestined, providential patriot, ordered by fate at a most propitious period from the ranks of perfect men to reiterate and re-enact its decision and decree of perfec- tion of union, with equality of man. For the few factious, faint, foregoing reasons, and others of like nature, but too numerous to here mention, we are going to write to Mr. Nabob, since he will never see these few pedantic pages, as we do not give here banking jargon, puts and calls, yachting regulations, lawn tennis rules or McAllister's idiotic, idiomatic hypotyposis, personally, and inform him that we propose to amend, on his account solely, our Constitution, in order to provide him with an opportunity to put more of his ill-gotten "wealth in circulation, to manipulate matters and things in twelve direct, popular presidential elections, instead of one circumspect, circumventing, classular election, which can defeat .the will of the majority from electing their choice, and as heretofore they have had really but one alternative, they virtually must vote the Republican- boodle-ticket or the Democratic-doodle-ticket, as both were promptly paid to count out a patriotic-people's- ticket. On a little reflection it may be easily seen that the capitalist, as far as the number of his choice would 354 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS be concerned, would be strictly in it for years, as it is reasonable to suppose that his party, whose shibboleth is protection for capital only, would receive five out of the twelve. And his party whose watchword and coun- tersign are, free trade markets and free bonds for Ameri- can labor only, might, with the aid of a few $50,000 ad- vances to the cause of liberty, for the post of ambassador to either that country with a brandy cork in the head of it, or may be, a mafia boot on the foot of it, get five more of the twelve, that would be ten for Nabob; and they dear people acting as volunteer whipper-in, by a herculean self-hoisting heave and harmonious heigh-ho! all-hands haul-away, bring up the rear with two. This would not be too much to ask, and we may here remark, that we are prompted to make the foregoing- suggestions because of our deep-rooted conviction, that the American mind is right and will always do right whenever it immerses itself in reflection, and that it is always perfectly safe to trust itself, and try any social innovation ; this conviction was the flambeau that fed and flamed our impulse ; although we are reluctantly led to believe that our loving neighbors, whom you all must have heard of in fabled song and story, those garish, genial, genteel, gentle geniuses, known only to the vulg'ar as native born aliens, British-American citizens, Ameri- can Protective Ass., etc., etc., that they will now accuse us of writing in this serious, snivelling strain of repel- lent revenge simply because that we did not get a post oflice ; but such thoughts and actions as those indulge in are the natural creations of the blind and the weak in dire distress, which distress they wish to relieve by retal- iating on the bright and strong, so in commonest charity we must ignore them, if not grant forgiveness before repentance, for we should know and realize that they suffer enough, through the hardships endured by all by the scorching curse of usury ! Plowman, cut another pint of oats from the ofif-horse's feed — the interest on the mortgage must be paid next month ! That evil is abroad and rampant in our land ; the dumb brute, even, is unjustly made to feel. Oh, Lord, 355 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Lord! How long will this last? When, oh, when, will that plundered prize be returned to us — the sublime equality and equity of the Father's Republic? Give us back the Republic of Washington and Lincoln, when the freeman, to the frenzied, ferocious tramp was but formu- lated and existed in the hooted, heathen, hellish, hover- ing hopes of that human leech, the mephitic mortgagee or mawkish, money-monging monomaniac. Do you dare not heed the word of warning, 3^ou nominally platonic politicians, thinkers, preachers, teachers, or have you learned beyond doubt that you are physical automatons of being, with naught truly spiritual or Godlike in you, and that the conscience you deludingly prate and babble so much about is nothing if not a peculiar poise or neu- ral state of that gray, spongy, mushy matter you name the brain? And that you could reverse this condition — but say, why worry or do it, as it would add no more pas- sion oil to your own machine, and if, knowing the times to be cruel, then wh}^ bother with chimerical justice? And learned that he who evolves highest thought and gives it happy expression and plainly marks out and chalks to life, deeds of noble action is hopelessly held as mad ! And that your Solons and sages in the select salon explain the disease as a burning brain fever by abnormal exultation over wild imaginations, and your savants, mocking with cutting cant and freezing satire, jeer the best poetical and the most lofty, prosaic expressed thoughts of noble minds and men, and martyr- ize our bravest, patriotic sons of progress ! Have you truly proved these heart-aching, murderous facts for those who believe and love a God, whether he is in Israel or abounds in boundless space? Ah, but your hounding, haunting conscience answers. No! Then all you perfidious politicians, parrying preachers, temporiz- ing teachers, and you who swim in the sickening, shad- owy, sinuous, slabby slime of that paralogizingly irri- gated, fertile field of sophistry, the college ; and you, the would-be dreamer of a better life at the bare expense of idle thought; and you, the charming, chiming chanter of your costless, rhythmic psalm ; and you the would-be 356 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS minatory musician of the minuet or pedal-pressing pan- tomimist of that pulsating, puffing puppet, the organ, who would fain burst the ports of paradise with proudly purest, polyphonous, praising and plaintive sounds ! All — all readjust the fiery indicator on the blackened dial of your inner, smouldering souls and bid it not piti- lessly point, as now, to that languid, dull-eyed, hungry, homeless, heartless wanderer to lay prostrate that the usurious tyrant may stamp his feet on the accursedly corn- plotted creation of his greed and leave the impish impress on him, "White Slave !" Shun him ! Hound him ! Vora- cious brute! The tramp! Relight that dial with the phosphoric glow of commonest truth and justice, and with the fulcrum of the faith that is within you pry your scorching, heated indicator to that calming, cooling, soothing point of the human polar star, hope, that the weak and weary waif may rise with thee from being the. abject, guiltless slave of the blighting, burning, black- ened soul, to that plane with all, in common, loving touch of the soul-God, of which all are free, blessed, bright and brilliant sparks ! Heed the warning or soon suffer the sighing, sweeping, swingling sorrow, certain to follow continued injustice ! Dear, angelic, gentle reader, whose assured future, celestial, starry coronal is well deserved, by displaying such admirable, enviable patience and fortitude, by fol- lowing us through such seemingly interminable, hazy, mazy, bewildering jungles of tangling, tifting, tortuous, tousing figures, on such a bedraggling, dusky, stony, thorny, twinging, twisting trial, which positively con- vinces us of your Job-excelling forbearance. Hence we will presumptively attempt to do you a feeble, flimsy favor in preparing you for that now In sight — the decep- tive mirage of the open plain at the end of our plaguey, poaching path — but, after our own fashion, by striving to irritate and incite your latent sensibilities to ire, by our offering you the advice and forewarning that, on reading this book through, if it is the first for you of its kind, you are hereby trustingly cautioned not to believe that you know it all ; but, by reading it over several times, it may 357 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS be the cause of opening for you a fortuitously felicitous and more fortunate line of investigation, which should be the paramount aim of all thoughtful and true Ameri- cans. Now, feeling that right here, by this advice, we have made our noblest stroke of duty, we will close with the only excuse we have to offer our poetasters : Doggerel No. 2. Such was our hurling haste, we had no time to waste In crossing t's, dotting i's, or marking commas ; So, for the cash you're out, you need not strut and shout, But smile, and shake, with truly yours, A. M. Thomas. 358 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ADDENDUM. CRITICAL, BUT PARTIAL, REVIEW OF THE BOOK, ''PROGRESS AND POVERTY." Having admiringly viewed, if not tasted, some of tlie ^exquisite beauties and soul-feeding fruits of interest, ' now let us briefly review its aesthetically nominal divi- sions, and note the diffractive dissertations diffused by the doctors of economic ditheism on that diaphoretic dicephalous duad facetiously named and captiously dubbed, interest; or, in other words, let us depone by deploying a few of the diverse conclusions arrived at by some of our would-be social philosophers, when com- menting on that two-headed offshoot, or the illegitimate, feverish monstrosity of our social organism, or statute laws, interest-rent. Interest, or something for scheming, shape and style, may be said to be, and is, known as of two faces under one hood, namely: First — That face, kind or name that is conferred on the individual or cor- poration through an unjust law, the power or virtue of collecting or charging money or its equivalent for the use of land, which should be and rightfully is the nat- urally common property of each and all, or what is called ground rent (or interest) to a privileged class arise?* It is called rent. Second — That name, kind or face that is conferred on the individual or corporation through an unjust law, the power or virtue of collecting or charging money or its equivalent for the use of money, which should be and properly and rightfully is the naturally artificial common property sprite or circulating medium of the whole people, which is universally and generally known as interest, but some hypocritical writers, in order to confuse the real wealth producer, confound the word * The besetting danger is not so much of embracing falsehood for truth as of mistaking part of the truth f^r the whole. — John Stuart Mill. 359 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS interest with just profits or natural increase obtained by the personal application of the products of past labor. Now, the first part of the question is, From what power or authority or virtue does the payment or collection of ground rent (or interest) to a privileged class arise? It arises by virtue of the entangled, counfounding hiero- glyphics placed upon a piece of paper or parchment by a usurping gQvernment, or the condensation of statutory law, called a patent or warranty deed. This, indeed, may be termed a most unwarranted, unjust, presumptuous and peculiar kind of usufruct ; that is, the right to charge and collect, to use and enjoy the natural increase or profits arising from the production of labor and land, without self-participation or the application of self-labor power to the land. Thus we see that rent arises from, or depends on, an unjust, condensed human law, in- scribed on paper, the tokens or piece evidences of which are called patents or warranty deeds. The second part of the question is. From what power or authority or virtue does the payment or collection of money — rent (or interest) — to or by a privileged class arise? It arises from or by virtue of the incomparably incongruous and puzzling hierography, deduced and condensed from state law, enacted by purchased political mockingbirds, trained in the legal social prison of human blight and blasphe- mously, yet skilfully daubed with diluted soot upon paper, by the several usurping governments, thereby ren- dering it collectable by law from the righteously would- be defaulter, the same as interest for the loan of land or rent, which is the Siamese twin of rent for money or interest. We see by one of the comparatively late, labori- ous lucubrations, or lusty, luxating books on political economy, where ground rent is abidingly condemned by a pitiful endeavor to justify religiously rent for money or interest. By the mere reference to the book, of course, the sincerity of its author stands challenged. We are here forced to admit that we would not consider the book worthy of extended notice, serious criticism, or at- tempt at refutation were it not for numerous newspaper advertisements claiming for it a circulation of one and one-half million copies, and lest that its antilogy or self- 360 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS contradictions and individual dogmatisms might make or cause a formidable spread of social toxine, or poisonous half truths or whole falsities, we will endeavor to produce a probationary, procrastinating antidote by pointing out some of its most glaringly adverse reasonings or deduce- ments. The book referred to is called "Progress and Poverty," by H. George. (We will refer to it as p: and p. and by the numbered page.) "Out of their own mouths shall come the words that condemn them, We- say so." "She (liberty)* will have no half-service, * h« * for liberty means justice, and justice is the natural law — the law of health and symmetry and strength, of frater- nity and co-operation (pages 391-2)." Now, then, jus- tice must be the foundation and culmination for all eco^ nomic, philosophic or scientific truths. These truths, then, must have for their test a perpetual readiness for verification and challenge, for investigation, without fear, favor or limit. They admiringly greet every trial accord- ing to its magnitude. They smile on high and low analy- sis and criticism. They calmly dally like a dabster on the chin of the most hypercritical skeptic. They chari- tably chide human authority and faith. They frown on the philosophisms of schools and so-called masters. They never banish the true pilgrim-philomath to the puffy, putative pages of perversive precedents, nor haughtily point to the mouldy, musty maxims of evil, economic, exorcising expositors. But they do demand their inter- pretation and substantiation through the laws of logical induction, and that the human senses, so far as is possi- ble, be tempered by oblations of nature's love and justice. The book, on pages 262-3, graphically defines land rent, from which we quote : "It, rent, is a fresh and continu- ous robbery that goes on every day and every hour. "^ * * It is a toll levied upon labor constantly and continuously. * * ^ It claims the just reward of the capitalist (hie!*) >i^ * * It debases and embrutes and embitters. * * * It darkens faith in the human soul, and across the reflection of a just and merciful Creator draws the veil of a hard and blind and cruel fate! It is I * The words in parenthesis are ours. 361 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS not merely a robbery in the past ; it is a robbery in the present — a robbery that deprives of their birthright the infants that are now coming into the world." (How fit- tingly these selected phrases describe the curse of all interest !) *'Why should we hesitate about, making short work of such a system? Because I was robbed yesterday and the day before, and the day before that, is that any reason that I should suffer myself to be robbed to-day and to-morrow? Any reason why I should conclude that the robber has acquired a vested right to rob me? If the land (or money) belong to the people, why continue to permit land (or money) owners to take the rent (or inter- est), or compensate them in any manner for the loss of rent (or interest)? Consider what rent, (or interest) is. It does not a;rise spontaneously from (money or) land ; it is due to nothing that the land (or money) owners (rather loaners) have done. "^^ * "^ Let the land (or money) holders have, if you please, all that the possession of the (money or) land would give them in the absence of the rest of the community. But rent, the creation of the whole community (or interest, the toll levied upon labor constantly and continuously), * "^ ^necessarily be- longs to. the whole community. Why not make short work of the matter, anyhow? For this robbery is not like the robbery of a horse or a sum of money that ceases with the act." The foregoing is but a sample of the author's reasoning for the abolishment or confiscation of ground or land rent. We certainly must agree with him there, since the very small conceptive and reasoning powers dealt out to us we find totally inadequate, even when aided by the most starry eloquence, to reconcile justice with robbery in any of our well-nigh annihilating attempts. On page 237 we read : ''This, then, is the remedy for the unjust and unequal distribution of wealth apparent in modern civilization, and for all the evils which flow from it: We must make land common prop- erty. ^ "^ * That the unequal ownership of land necessitates the unequal distribution of wealth. And, as in the nature of things, unequal ownership of land is in- separable from the recognition of individual property in land," (then the "private titles" of us land loaners assure 362 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS our salvation — Hosanna!), "it necessarily follows that the only remedy for the unjust distribution of wealth is in making land common property." But, according to this reasoning, there must be a common ownership or equal land holdings. Say, that no head of a family shall occupy, possess or own and use more than forty acres of first- class, sixty of second, or eighty of third class, eighty to be the absolute maximum, or more than one city lot, fifty by one hundred and fifty feet. This would not necessi- tate a per capita distribution of land, which to some seems to loom up as terrifyingly impossible. But, with one fell swoop, the following dogmatism, page 236, cuts ofif or mows down all authority and reasoning and sets up as invulnerable the apodictic and infallible self-evident tenet of the author that, *'An equal distribution of land is impossible." So "if that don't clinch it, further on he says : "Nor is any remedy worth considering that does not fall in with the natural direction of social develop- ment, and swim, so to speak, wath the current of the times." N. B. — So if you, or your philosophy is not in the swim, you are warned, you had, better keep mum, or mumble in the sacred, silent secrecy of your shabby, shad- ow^y shanty. In support of the facts collected by the author, which are universally admitted, except by selfish beneficiaries and their cackling cuckoos, he quotes largely from eminent authors, as, for instance : "The claim of the landholder is altogether subordinate to the general policy of the state, '"^ "^ '•' when private property in land is not expedient (to be expedient would require the masses to be barbarians, cannibals or savages, necessi- tating hard work and semi-starvation to force them to -think and reason) it is unjust. ^^ * * The land of Ireland, the land of every country, belongs to the people of that country. ^ ^ ^ What right have the land- lords to the accession (increase or addition) of riches that comes to them from the general progress of society, with- out work or risk on their part?" — John Stuart Mill. Next he quotes from that lofty, living, martyred mind, now apparently in declension, before whose name is men- tioned we should moisten our lips with sweetest nectar, "Herbert Spencer" (P. and P. quotes more fully than PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the following), who, in writing of the equal partitions of the land, says: "Such a doctrine (equal division of land as common property, or letting it out to the highest bidder) is consistent with the highest state of civiliza- tion ; may be carried out without involving a community of goods, and need cause no serious revolution in exist- ing arrangements. * * * a state of things so ordered would be in perfect harmony with the moral law. * ^ * Clearly, therefore, on such a system, the earth might be enclosed, occupied and cultivated in entire subordination to the law of equal freedom." — H. Spencer. The author, after depicting in flaming characters the ever-eating evils, ever ebbing away the eclat and energy of the nation, con- sequent on the admission and collection by individuals of such robbery as land or ground rent, and quoting from such acknowledged authorities in order to strengthen and maintain his position in regard to the collation of past and present generally admitted economic, social certain- ties, he goes on to say (page 291) : "We should satisfy the law of justice ; we should meet all economic require- ments, by at one stroke abolishing all private titles," etc. Then we find, hidden away among the thorny roses, the advice to.be guided by the tactics of tyranny's founders and have recourse to old forms. We are told by doing so "we may glide fast and far with the current." But is not this the current of progress? Does it ever counsel or countenance the fiendish devices of the retrograding tactics of usurping tyrants? Is this the current one must needs jump in, in order to be in the swim? On page 292 we read : "Let them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it." And, again : "No owner of land need be dispossessed (neither might he be dispossessed under an equal allotment, until a bonafide applicant made due entry and paid for im- provements), and no restriction need be placed upon the amount of land any one could hold." Now, is not this the previously and loudly condemned private property in land, and the noisily deplored unequal ownership of land, the previously attributed source of all social evils? Are these proofs of consistent and sane sincerity? Are we to perpetuate a nation composed of wage serfs, or 364 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS home makers and owners, and landed' aristocracy, and wandering paupers, with their rolled homes on their backs, like the snail? Suppose that internal revenue was abolished, as it should be, to which all are agreed, as also all tax or license for the manufacture and sale or distribution of all American productions — commence free trade at home first — and that a true American or national — not foreign or international, as outsiders can tend to their own affairs for some time to come — free trade, which seems to be the bugaboo of some and the bugbear of others, etc., was established, and that, instead of a graduated income tax, that, as you will, a land tax sup- planted all internal taxes, tolls, licenses and revenues, what then? Would not the wage w^orker be as badly off as before, when the land loaner's sigh of surprise had subsided, if not worse? Labor must work land, or all must starve ! Then the land loaner or holder would be really king! The almighter arbiter, who could dictate to labor its wages, or the other dreadful alternative ! The American title-lord-privates that you would fain set up must retrieve themselves by combining to reduce wages and advance to present retail prices the productions of his land and life or death impelled labor ! Would not the laborer be powerless and the American lord-private- title all-powerful? Also, what invitingly charming temptations there would be for bribery and perjury and other evasive methods, ''to put a premium on unscrupu- lousness and a tax upon conscience." In fanciful corrobo- ration of the foregoing dilemma of the laborer, and the unbending posture of a lord-private-title, let us read, on pages 226-7, P- ^i^d Pv where widely known and uncon- tradicted facts are not only admitted, but individually asseverated, as follows : "But land will not starve, like laborers; * >i^ * its owners can wait." (Is not this the potentially potent, social bane of private titles in land?) * * * ''Suppose the combination (for increase of wages) to be so thorough as to include all agricultural laborers, and to prevent from doing so all who might be tempted to take their places. * * * If cultivation thus comes to a deadlock, the land owners would lose only their rent, while the land improved by lying fallow. 365 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS But the laborers would starve, ^' ^ ^^ and in a gen- eral deadlock landowners could live (take this with a grain of salt), while laborers of all sorts must starve or emigrate. (In a country and in an age of steam and electricity, free schools, and free and secret ballot, and cheap, omniferous, insuperable and prolific printing press ; if laboring mankind does not peremptorily demand, through a combination of their votes — which they can never do while lured by the song-and-dance fadism of economic, hand-organ pedagogues, from just, genuine and demonstrable reforms — and by a loathing or retching of the old, musty, wornout phantom of politician, parti- tion parties, the natural wages of labor : "The produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labor." — Adam Smith. And also demand the natural birthright of all mankind, the equal, unfettered openness to the occupancy and best possible use of land, as, "The land of every country belongs to the people of that coun- try." — J. Stuart Mill. If they do not demand these things, which are born in nature's law of freedom, reared in her law of justice, and live in her law of truth, then we say, let them starve or emigrate to sulphurous shores !) * "^ * -But the fixed and definite nature of land enables land owners to combine much more easily and efficiently than either laborers or capitalists. How easy and effi- cient their combination is, there are many historical exam- ples. And the absolute necessity for the use of land, and the certainty in all- progressive countries that it must increase in value, produce among land owners, without any formal combination, all the effects that could be produced by the most rigorous combination among labor- ers and capitalists." Then from where would all those promised, ecstatic blessings flow and human-elevating fruits in torrents on us pour, even if by law we consti- tuted or appointed, as second-hand tax collectors, our superior, private-land-titled heroes of supernal attributes, even the most remote, smoky benefits would be but titu- lar, indeed! How hinder them to exact almost retail prices for wholesale productions? How hinder them to charge more for improvements, not the bare land com- petition could not serve? How hinder them to compel 366 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS laborers to work for anything that they may choose to offer? For again we read : "Deprive a laborer of oppor- tunity of employment and he will soon be anxious to get work on any terms." An admirable, Shylock, speculative conclusion! As well deprive him of liberty, light and life! Dead dogs can't yelp. But is justice the fountain- head from which flows this sacred power of deprivation or the holy law of title-lord-private? And, once more, on page 245 we read: "If one man can command the land upon which others must labor, he can appropriate the produce of their labor as the price of his permission to labor." We are promised a genuine frosted, fruit cake millenium when all rent is taken in taxation (all rent would be about $8,000,000,000, or $10 per month pension for every man, woman and child, as well as a million poodle dogs and pussy cats, in the United States), and all taxation is taken from land. As though it was not taken from land by labor. It is impossible to reconcile the canons of taxation with the author's idea of a land tax and the benefits that labor would derive from it. As all taxes and the whole human race under any regime are paid from and supported by the production or action of labor, in connection with the other chief factor of produc- tion, land, there being but two principal factors, labor and land, as all the product of past labor, or real capital, as it is sometimes called, is perishable and must be repro- duced to be. Capital, or matter used for, or in, reproduc- tion, is a form of land, being the crystallization of land and labor power, its potentially direct, or indirect, repro- ductive attributes or power being its sole value, which requires labor constantly and continuously to care for, or with, during its temporary incommissibility or the semes- tral interim. As, for instance, if the bushel of potatoes, acorn, cow% bird, fishes, etc., are not labored with, or are eaten only once, neither will make very prolific seed or real capital, if the locomotive is not properly labored with by being securely housed and its rheumatic joints rubbed with liniment and fed with diluent diamonds and purest crystal water, etc., it will not pull much iron ore from the land to reproduce its kind. Not so, my friend, with the $1,000,000 national bank note (the best the world 367 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ever smiled on), clearing house certificate or perpetual pass to any star in space, bank demand certificate of metallic deposit or seismic germ of the barren baron's brain, or even the duly despicably despised United States Treasury note. Neither requires but little labor to be, and a modulated, intoned breath of poison-ladened air v^ill creatingly rake, reap and reave its kind from the bead of brav^ny brother's brow^, and but requiring such labor as the fascinating formation of a brilliant, budding rosette to be laboriously planted in the rakishly radiant and ruffled shirt front of the fribble, there secure from rot and rust, yes, and even stain, if the bearer chews not Navy plug. Land is the fixed, latent or potential and inert force in production. And when devising any form, regulation or scheme of human law to maintain society together on just or righteous principles and to ''render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" we should always remember the other higher force, labor; that it is the active, initial, positive and voluntary force of all production, without which all capital would change form or, in common parlance, van- ish; but through labor's volition it may exist, but never increase .of itself, notwithstanding the wine in my cellar growing stale. The canons are: First — "That it bear as lightly as possible upon production." But the private, single, title tax (never mind constitutional foibles of rep- resentative taxation) prpposes to put it upon land, a chief factor of production, which would virtually be placing it direct on labor, for labor must apply itself to land to live, and therefore must pay taxes before it can apply itself to land, and it per consequent proposes that he only who shall not labor on land shall be exempt from all taxa- tion. Indeed, it matters not to labor who the titular tax- payer is, where justice governs, but for labor the supreme question is how to recover its birthright, the open, omni- parous opportunity to the possession of land, the public title of tenure to read, all land, for best use with individual manipulation. If "taxation necessarily lessens the incen- tive to production," what then? Should all our laborers become lawyers and bankers? Let us suppose that the land loaners or holders who do not exploit, cultivate or 368 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS I improve their land (except by verbal or written falsifica- 1 tion) had to pay in taxes the full rental value, and suppose j that they found it more cumbersome than profitable to j continue to hold their private title and that it reverted i to the state? Would he Avho was willing to improve, I occupy and use the private title, or, rather, the land, be : taxed for the privilege, or for his useful activity? In j either case, then, why not all of us become usurious or I legal bums? The second canon is, "That it be easily and cheaply collected, and fall as directly as may be upon the ultimate payer." The first part of this rule or canon will be considered by most as being rather cheap. AVho are the ultimate payers? Are not the consumers? Beyond all doubt the consumer pays it on what he consumes and must, or should, do so under any method of taxation, even though he be a miserable mendicant, murderously mislaying mumbled supplications for your intellectual illumination; and this is just, if it is brought or pushed to an arbitrary ending. Suppose that an individual works hard and constant all year on forty acres of land, and real- izes, say, $1,000 income over absolute personal necessi- ties, would it not be right and just for him to pay taxes for the regulation and support of societary maintenance, from which society he consumed or withdrew his $i,ooo? Without this society he could not draw it; true he might have had the raw material ; he could not consume it all, for too much hog ends in scurvy ! And suppose another individual has drawn from society, or consumed, $10,000 for the sale of musically monotonous wind, or the noisy, intorted intonation of a legal jawsmith, or professor of barratry, or, in other words, for the sale of advice-in-law, which should be so simple that all those governed by it, except idiots, etc., should understand it. Would it not be meet and just to tax the commodity-law-huckster with geometrical gradation? For he unmercifully taxed the brain, forty-acre, and muscle capitalist. Oh, what of the banker bachelor^ who dedicates to his physical demands and mental desires $100,000, drawn or consumed from society? Well may we ask, in the words of J. S. Mill, "A¥hat right have the (money loaners) landlords to the accession (interest or addition) of riches that come to 369 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS them from the general progress of society, without work, risk or economizing on their part?" And, we may add, without divine attributes? But are we to answer Mill's question by the words of Malthus? "That there comes human beings into the world for whom nature refuses to provide and who have not the slightest right to any share in the existing store of the necessaries of life" (ex- cept sufficient to keep the brain and muscles in order while creating wealth for others) "and (nature) extorts obedience to her mandates by the force of hunger, pesti- lence, war, crime, mortality, infanticide, prostitution and syphilis." Now, who will dare to say that the bachelor, buckish banker or loving, lustrous land leaner have not a divine right to the imposition of an income tax, with- out work or any return, or the collection of interest rent, or resterintent? The third canon is, "That it be certain." All non-mercenary, fair-minded, clear-brained economists will agree that a graduated, impartial income tax would be more certain, bear more equally, be more easily and cheaply collected and bear more lightl}^ on production than any other up to date either devised or conjured. (Our internal revenue tax, collected by the general gov- ernment, while bearing unequally, yet costs less than 3 per cent, for all services and collection, while our circu- lating medium, obtained through bank loans alone of over $4,000,000,000 of loans, costs over $400,000,000, or over 40 per cent, on the $1,000,000,000 outside the United States Treasury, of our $1,500,000,006 of national money stock. So much for cheap and dear income tax, if col- lected by parasites or the people !) But there is an in- cessantly tiresome tooting vibrating through the thin, tilting air of silly, senseless argument against its adop- tion. An argument or reasoning which has a similar effect, and is as true to nature as that elaborate and graphic description given in patent pill posters known only to the learned as "that tired feeling," which may be condensed into those few words. It would give tempta- tion for lawbreaking and chicanery. We will simply say this is one, not only of the strongest, but most fiendishly cloaked statements, or repetitions of, justifications of, or excuses for, public crime or social evil that it is possible 370 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS for any public writer to conjure or copy. It hints, as it were, to a premium on selfishness, and intimates or in- trigues with socially sinful chicanery; it inveigles the doughy brain of the doughty economic student and seduces the mushy matter in the minor's mental matrix by inculcating the idea, with subtle suggestion, the belief that public deception or dishonesty is in no way crimi- nal, or rather to inculcate in the minds of the masses the motto that mankind should never pay a just debt until publicly forced by a last and forceful resort. The fourth canon is, ''That it bear equally." Would the land monopolist pay all the taxes for himself and the money monopolist as well, although the latter is, 'Tn reality devoting his labor to the production of bread" and butter, as truly as though he were not only a farmer, but also a baker in a Baxter street cellar, or slopping in a Long Island dairy? Would the forty-acre monopolist have to pay all taxes for governmental support, not only for him- self and family, but as well- for the real estate fakir and family, who really produces wheat, as though he did not ply a jacknife to keep his nails in trim, and then also have to chip in one cent an acre to assist in defraying the extra expenses of government troops in arresting, stabbing or shooting the pauper wage slaves, of course, in chief supported by the beautiful, spontaneous fruits of borrowed, riskless money, those serfs, created by monopoly from the sweat of the railroad magnate, should they murmur whenever the caprice hunched him to cut down their meagre rations, while' he was really paying taxes to some foreign potentate, mayhap, while gadding around taking silent lessons, perhaps in Egypt or any other stamping ground, of former tyrant masters? On pages 240-5 of P. and P. we find that private property in land, as well as rent, is unsparingly denounced as a wrong and a robbery, which scathing accusations aptly apply to the private property in money, as well as inter- est. We read : ''As a man belongs to himself, so his labor, when put in concrete form, belongs to him. And for this reason that which a man makes or produces is his own, as against all the world. ""^ "■•' "^ There can be no other rightful title, because (first) there is no other 371 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS natural right from which any other title can be derived. * * * With what other is man by nature clothed, save the power of exerting his own faculties? From what else, then, can the right of possessing and controlling things be derived? Nature acknowledges no ownership or control in man, save as the result of exertion. ^ ^ ^ She (nature) recognizes no claim but that of labor, and recognizes that without respect to the claimant. ^^ ^ ^ The laws of nature are the decrees of the Creator. There is written in them no recognition of any right save that of labor. ^ >!^ * Hence, as nature gives only to labor, the exertion of labor in production is the onh'^ title to exclusive possession. * * "^ If a man be rightfully entitled to the produce of his labor, then no one can be rightfully entitled to the ownership of anything which is not the produce of his labor. * * * This right of ownership excludes the possibility of any other right of ownership. * * >k jf production gives to the pro- ducer the right to exclusive possession and enjoyment, there can rightfully be no exclusive possession or enjoy- ment of anything not the production of labor (then, what of the justified right of rent for money?), and the recog- nition of private property in land (and money) is wrong, * * * When non-producers can claim as rent (or in- terest) a portion of the wealth created by producers, the right of the producers to the fruits of their labor is to that extent denied. There is no escape from this posi- tion.^'' Now, on reading such a clearly choice collection of sound reasonings against private property or titles in land and its consequent collection of rent, then reading others before referred to, and also on page 292 P. and P., 'T do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate pri- vate property in land. ^ ^ ^ Let them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it," etc., we must acknowledge that we would have charitably ascribed it to temporary mental aberra- tion were it not that, long after the nine preceding parts of this book were written, we were handed, for the first time, a copy of P. and P., and also a copy of the "land * The italicising and words in parenthesis are ours. PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS question," wherein the reader is referred to P. and P. ''for a detailed examination of the whole social problem," and also in a footnote the reader is told of the warm friendship extended by some landlords toward the "de- tailed examination of the whole social problem." Now, the ''land question" was published in New York as late as 1889, or ten years after P. and P. was copyrighted (ac- cording to the copy of each now before us), in which "Land Question," by the same author, we read, "and shudder at the cat under the meal," on page 44, L. Q.: "Do that (tax land full rental value), and without any talk of dispossessing landlords, without any use of the ugly word 'confiscation'" (oh, what sugar sophistry! what serous, silly, servility, seemingly arising from a sick- ening fear of being sent from the swim to a Stygian seat in social shades!), "the landlords would be left the abso- lute and unqualified possessors of — their title deeds and r.onveyance." Let the readers weigh for themselves how that last will chime with past admissions that we have noted, as well as the following, on page 245, P. and P. : "For, as labor cannot produce without the use of land, the denial of the equal right to the use of land is neces- sarily the denial of the right of labor to its own produce." And again : "If one man can command the land upon which others must labor, he can appropriate the produce of their labor as the price of his permission to labor." Whether land be taxed single or remain forever untaxed, or neither, that is exactly in virtue what the land holder of absolute title and money loaner can and will do, ac- cording, not only to P. and P.'s numerous admissions, but most assuredly according to the instinctive feelmgs of all men, knowing that either financial, political or prop- erty inequality gives unqualified poAver to any individual over any other not so unrighteously favored. Something that would indicate a remittent aberration is to be found in the oversight of quoting from Herbert Spencer to try to support the single tax faddism without abolishing in- dividual, perpetually private titles or rights ; mark par- ticularly the words quoted, as follows : "Instead of leas- ing his acres from an isolated proprietor, the farmer would lease them from the nation. Instead of paying his 373 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS rent to the agent of Sir John or his Grace, he would pay it to an agent or deputy agent of the community. Stew- ards would be public officials instead of private ones, and tenancy (temporary possession) the only land tenure (or holding). A state of things so ordered would be in per- fect harmony with the moral law. Under it all men would be equally landlords ; all men would be alike free to become tenants. * * * Clearly, therefore, on such a system, the earth might be enclosed, occupied and cul- tivated in entire subordination to the law of equal free- dom." — Herbert Spencer. Clearly, therefore, there is no mincing matters here ! No fearful crouching to estab- lished criminal customs ! No hallucination of the danger of being wretchedly anchored on the miry banks of the social swim ! No inefficacious, though sweet-scented, balm for deeply wounded, intellective instinct ! No one, even with the slightest shadow of justice, can insinuate to Herbert Spencer, from these words, any insidious de- sign, in an evil hour, in launching a fad or ism built on baseless, chimerical suppositions, but in the name of fundamental truths, yet lacking the chief principle or tenet of commonest justice, equality of rights in birth, life and- death, that is, the fearless, open, indiscriminate accessibility to land ; and neither to apparently laimch it in order to divert or distract the public mind, at a most propitious time, from the calm, intelligent agitation and probable realization of genuinely tangible and true re- forms, generated and digested in purest, strictest equity and justness by noble, patriotic, unselfish minds ! In P. and P., like in other works of "a detailed examination (containing fitful commendation and condemnation of each part) of the whole social problem," or laborious works on political economy, in their endeavors to thereby float an excuse for interest or rent, there can be found a great deal of misleading, economic jargon or babbling bosh, calculated or intended to confuse or confound the unwary reader, or the positive maxim, particularly in the frequent use of, and reference, to that awe-inspiring word, law, as the law of rent, the law of wages, etc. On page 125 we find the very earnest, but ridiculously far- fetched similie, to the law of gravitation, where we read 374 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that : "The law of rent rests on the fundamental prin- ciple (what verbal football), which is to political econ- omy what the attraction of gravitation is to physics," etc. A little physic might make reparation for the abuse and damage to ideas and language. Now, the meaning of the word law, in this connection, is a fixed or constant, immutable or immovable, fundamental truth or fact, like unto the eternally fixed and humanly indefinable princi- ple, law or order of action of the bodies of the universe, which is, and must be, independent of and supernal to any human action. But, if such were the case, then how futile the mortal attempt to decry interest or rent! In this sense there is no such thing or eternal rule or principle as the law of interest or rent. But there is such a law of wages, if "The produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labor." — Adam Smithy etc. It is true that economic thinkers and writers, in regard to rent, interest, etc., have sought out the princi- pal points of their effects and cause, and have critically examined their rule of direction and growth, and after- wards formulated their thoughts on the rule of action regarding the current of social good or evil, and then ■chained them to paper by the aid of printer's ink, which by some inexpressible agency might have been reflective- ly, yet indelibly, indented on the brain of idiots ; the whole result by some is looked upon as infallible, and hopelessly called law ! We are also at times amusingly, if not confusedly entertained at reading of the "harmony and correlation of the laws of distribution," namely, rent, interest, wages. Are we to cast aside as ridiculous, social ethics or the moral law, and bid the "devil take the hind- most"? Otherwise, where can the harmony of the law of robbery, social evil and wrong come in, in cadenced, chiming chant with the law of justice, social happiness and natural right? If the produce of labor is the just reward of and belongs to labor, how can wages harmon- ize or correlate with rent, that is, robbery, etc., the same as interest is? Wages may reciprocate with the product of past labor, or capital, as some love to call it, by repro- ducing it for the use of it. But the interest pumper or capitalist does not understand that kind of mutual bene- 375 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS fit, interchange or reciprocity. If the correlation of "standing in opposite relation" was meant, then it might be said to harmonizingly correlate. For the abiding rule is for money and land loaners to ever work in har- mony against the law of nature and labor ! Let us set some of the condensations of those so-called laws, some- what in harmony with the dicephalous duad, with two ■ heads and a large tail, and see if the tail will wag the heads: Laws, by P. and P., called THE TRUE STATEMENT. RENT depends on the margin of cultivation, ris- ing as it falls and falling as it rises. WAGES depend on the margin of cultiva- tion, falling as it falls and rising as it rises. INTER- EvST (its ratio with wages being fixed by the net power of. increase, which at- taches to capital"^) depends on the margin of cultiva- tion, falling as it falls and Statement current in sev- eral PSEUDO-POLITICO- ECONOMIC WORKS. RENT depends on the margin of cultivation, rising as it falls and falling as it rises. WAGES depend upon the ratio between the number of laborers and the amount of capital devoted to their employment. INTER- EST depends on the equa- tion between the supply of and demand for capital ; or, as is stated of profits, upon wages (or the cost of labor*), rising as wages fall and falling as wages rise. Our statement, or a purely parboiled parody of parataxis (single taxes) Rent, depends on that frosted, frouzy relic of conquest's divine right doctrine, arbitrarily applied, and upheld by the philosophisms or sophistry notched in our social organization, notwithstanding our vociferously pre- tentious denunciation of it. And whenever, if at all, affected by the margin of cultivation, rising as it falls on account of the market, nominal, or exchangeable (not intrinsic) value given to land through density or pressure of population, and consequqent aggregate increase of human necessity for * The italics are ours, but the words in parenthesis are not ours. . PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS the products or use of land and labor. And rent rises in the aggregate as the margin of cultivation rises or expands, which rising or expansion is a crowding out, or increase, of population, which means an increase of labor, which in gen- eral means an increase of production, which, under our present iniquitous social motion, means an increase or rise in quantity of rent, which also must mean a general rise in rent, since the ratio of landholders or loaners are ever decreasing in proportion to the increase of wage-workers. In an honest, clear, economic inquiry the ratio of rent must be measured or determined in real production, never in its fictitious representative, money. Here generally is where the willing bhnd follow the dead blind; for if by scheming, scoundrelly manipulation of the community circulating reck- oning tokens, that $5 of rent, reduced from $10, when the latter procured ten bushels of wheat only, would now pur- chase five days' labor or ten bushels of wheat, then rent has not fallen measured in production, but virtually has risen when even though it is stoutly denied, and under such conditions wages do not fall measured in productions, but only those who have accumulated money, not actual wealth, benefit by the iniquity at the expense of all those who have not accumulated money, if such money be still upheld in its legal endowments by the said great majority of dupes in such a community, and under those conditions productive industry staggers, suffers and temporarily suspends for a surprise breathing spell to once again attempt, in a seemingly vain endeavor, to determine as to the certainty of who are the greatest fools ! Let us ask, as to the law of rent : Where does this rent-line come in in Europe where those quoted rent lawmakers felt their ideas ? Wages depend on the margin left, or growlingly or grudgingly allowed after the ravenous appetities of riskless land and money or capital loaners, are partially and sulkily appeased, in which socially suicidal and retrogressive methods, they are aided, abetted and defended by the noisy, verbose, politico-economic cackle of charming, checkmating charlatans. And whenever, if ever, affected by what is called the margin of cultivation, or the competingly productive confines or area of a contiguous or continuous community, geographical district, or nation; wages fall as it falls, in 377 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS inverse ratio as rent rises visibly or tangibly ; or as the density or pressure of population increases, and as the social gad of class is driven. And wages fall gradually, constantly and continuously as those things or margins rise or expand (but in rare or exceptional cases wherein the risk of life and production is abnormally great and where the loaning accursed monster had not yet sprouted sufficient fangs to poison justice), as all species of loaners, idlers and trick- sters are unigenous and are a unit for their reduction to that point that suits their purpose best, not which the laborer will consent to work for, but for which he is in desperation driven to accept by sheer force of palpable destitution ! In- terest depends on the fact of its right with wages being fixed by the net or rather gross power of viciously devised, sup- purating human law, which is of, and attaches to the mer- cenary, scrubby, shabby, shrivelling politician. And when, if ever, affected by the magic margin of cultivation or pro- duction, it rises as the margin falls, either measuring by pro- duction or production's plundering picture, for the monster's baby must suck all mother production can spare and still exist to give down her milk; which fall can only occur by increase of population and as increase of population demands increase of the sprite of wealth or circulating credit-tokens or money, which increasing demand not being satisfied from and by the proper unselfish source. Government, then the offspring, interest, of the ghost of wealth, money, increases or comes by twins and triplets. And interest rises as the margin rises, which can only rise by increase of population and its natural and imperative demand for human life sus- taining necessities and the consequent demand for a circulat- ing medium, which, if inadequate, while in rarely isolated cases it might fall but wondrously and only temporarily, in general rises the premium on the circulating, fictive, legal, mandatory shadow of real actual labor or its productions. These may be said to be the evilly conjured human laws of wages and interest-rent. But the natural law of wages ! Wages depend only on the mental and physical abilities and willingness of mankind to apply itself to the land in a sane and observing manner. Nature, land, or all natural forces, are ever ready to obey the proven decree, to do the rest ! The natural law of rent or interest? There is none! As 378 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS Nature commands all animals to live by individual exertion, or "by the sweat of their face," on passing out of the in- terest or suckling period! Another puzzle for honest or unsuspecting and inquiring minds may be found on pages where the remedy for all social evils is proposed and the remedies that have been advocated by all others befittingly condemned. First as to co-operation, which in its truest sense implies or demands the common ownership of land and ail agencies employed for its best protection and ex- ploitation. But P. and P. attacks co-operation, while pre- tending to advance a step on the road to that goal, from the standpoint or through the glasses of our present iniquitous, or his oft admitted social evil, system, of private titles in land, and forgets the right of the people or a repre- sentative government to regulate individual shares of pro- duction in general, if it has that right to fix the production of money or the share of the riskless owner who is by law prescribed for, protected and maintained as riskless. We read on pages 228-9: "If co-operation was universal (mind you) it could not raise wages or relieve poverty. This is readily seen." Further on we read in regard to the increas- ing of wages or relieving of poverty, while all social evil is ascribed to the unequal distribution of land and conse- quently, of wealth: "That it can have no such general ten- dency is apparent." Would it not have been better to have left alone such questions as appear to have been too deep and broad for shallow minds to grapple with; for on page 230, regarding co-operation, we read the admission that is made of course with full knowledge of the blighting com- petition from without, that "Where it has been tried it has in many instances improved perceptibly the condition of those immediately engaged in it." Those co-operating com- munities generally hold the land in common. But here let us read the lame e^tcuse for the improvement : "But this is due simply to the fact that these cases are isolated." Would such appalling and indescribable social evils exist, as do now, if no interest or rent was paid to anyone except for the legitimate expenses of government, and every one willing to labor received their just recompense, and that you made your landholding common and co-operation universal ; if those now trying co-operation are benefitted ther-^by, even 379 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS though they be handicapped by outside individual, state, national and international cut-throat competition? Is there no higher, purer, brighter ideal for man than that brutal one, the individual accumulation of wealth at the expense of his just yet vaguely envious fellows? Is that the true incentive for the beast-man or the spirit-man? But a sor- rowful smile o'erspreads our frightened features as we read on page 238: "I thus propose to show that the laws"^^ of the universe do not deny the natural aspirations of the human heart; that the progress of society might be, and, if. it is to continue, must be, toward equality, not toward inequality ; and that the economic harmonies prove the truth perceived by the Stoic Emperor.* We are made for co- operation — like feet, like hands, like eye-lids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth." We might inadvertently have looked on the above as an excerpt from a Sunday- school mission tract that had stealthily crept into those pages while the author dozed in the shadowy, leafy, laby- rinthal lanes of psuedo-economic, conflicting theories, were it not that we had read on 103 pages further and found that the hereditary transmission of acquired qualities again sprouts, and enters the struggle of social aggregates in the survival of the fittest, as on page 341 we are told: "Men improve as they become civilized, or learn to co-operate in society." We feel so disheartened by this admission that in our weak condition we are totally unqualified for present comment. As to government direction or interference as proposed and honestly agitated by many earnest philosophic philanthropists for the decrease of poverty the natural workings or effects of a just resentment for injustice, com- monly called crime, etc. We find a flabby, jerky attempt to frustrate the fruits certain in time to mature from the open, honest, intelligent discussion from these economic propositions, by a subtle transposition of the words "re- striction and repression" for "direction and regulation." Now as all know that the word restriction signifies or im- plies a limit or confining, and in fact a repression, and that repression means a crushing, a curbing, or a subduing. This leaves a vast space between them and the words superin- * The italics are ours. 380 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS tending or directing, or planning, ruling or regulating. On page 230 we read : "These are the substitution of govern- mental direction for the play of individual action, and the attempt to secure by restriction what can better be secured by freedom." Well, what would governmental direction be but national or universal co-operation. What is this freedom here referred to but the opposition of the cut-throat competition of the ignorant savage, as we read "that man improves as he becomes civilized or learns to co-operate in society." On page 231 we read: "But it is evident that whatever savors of regulation and restriction is in itself bad." But now from among the promised theopneustic blessings to be showered on mankind by singularly taxing private titles in land, and also from among those magic fruits to flow, for which a fanciful promise is the freight receipt, let us cull a few of the poorest windfalls from page 236: "Government could take upon itself the trans- mission of messages by telegraph, as well as by mail, of building and operating railroads, as well as opening of and maintaining common roads. With present functions so simplified and reduced (government collecting all taxes then and their consequent distribution, instead of as now, its own or national taxes), functions such as these (operating rail- roads, etc.) could be assumed without danger or strain, and would be under the supervision of public attention which is now distracted." What an apt expression! But to cap the climax of the fairy- jewelled promise, let us wind up with the ideal delight of: "Government would change its character and would become the administration of a great co-operative society. It would become merely the agency by which the common property was administered for the common benefit." Now, who dare hold anyone responsible for errors, when thus lavishly casting broadcast such pre- ternatural prophetic poesy? As to the more general dis- tribution of, or equal division, or holding of land, or a regulation to a given maximum ; among other things equally as shallow or diluent in P. and P. we find the following conflicting dictums. Concerning the concentration, or gen- eral increase of land holding by individuals, we read pages 233-4: "Now, the existence of this tendency shows two things ; first, that any measures which merely permit or 381 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS facilitate the greater subdivision of land would be inopera- tive (we are not told why. Because in an economic sense it would be impossible to logically tell why it would be in- operative; particularly so, under initiative and referendum), and second, that any measures which would compel it would have a tendency to check production. If land in large bodies can be cultivated (the inference here is that such is the case) more cheaply than land in small bodies, to restrict ownership to small bodies will reduce the aggregate production of wealth, and in so far as such restrictions are imposed and take effect, will they tend to diminish the general produc- tiveness of labor and capital?" If large bodies can be oper- ated more cheaply, wdiich means more production for similar labor, or similar production for less labor, and that there- fore it vvould be advisable when proven beneficial ; then why not suggest the obliteration of dividing fences or co-opera- tion ? But that such a cheesy effort at churning makes very poor butter we may smell further on. "The effort there- fore to secure a fairer division of wealth by such restric- tion (equally allowed maximum land tenure) is liable to the drawback of lessening the amount to be divided." Now, feeling so light on unloading such a weight of serious con- siderations on a subject of such vital importance, w^e are pleasantly treated to an allegorical quixotic quiz of cat and monkey philosophy, which we rapturously and reverentially remember until we read as far as page 323 on which we find: "But the great gain of the working farmer can only be seen when the effect on the distribution of population is considered. * * * If, as is doubtless the case, the application of machinery tends to large fields, agricultural population will assume the primitive form and cluster in villages. The life of the average farmer is now unneces- sarily dreary. He is not only compelled to work early and late (why?), but he is cut off by the sparseness of popula- tion from the conveniences, the amusements, the educational facilities, and the social and intellectual opportunities that come with the closer contact of man with man. He would be far better off in all these respects, and his labor would be far more productive if he and those around him held no more land than they wanted to use." To dispel any doubt that the reader might entertain as to the feelings, sincerity 382 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and sanity of the author on this subject, let us read from a reassuring footnote, as follows : "^Besides the ernormous in- crease in the productive power of labor which would result from the better distribution of population there would be also a similar economy in the productive power of land." How can the best possible distribution of population be at- tained? Is it not best embraced in the best possible dis- tribution of land, a distribution that would give to the greater number, who would personally occupy and use it, an equal share with any other individual, as "that, this would give a far better or more stable basis to the state than that which prevails in England, there can be no doubt" (from a con- trast of the small holdings in France). In this sense what is the state? Is it not, to coin a phrase, the aggregate indi- vidual? If the people are prosperous then, the nation! Now all these jingling jumbles of diverse dogmatisms might indeed lead most easily the guileless to innocently believe or suppose that anyone guileful enough to make such bifariou bilateral, asseverated assertions was most likely off balance, or had some subtle, subtile, edge-tool to whet. But please allow us to respectfully suggest that such might not be the case. As for instance, we now most positively declare that there is no one who can judge with any kin to accuracy of the inflaming feelings enkindled in the mind of the individual under such paling, palpitating circumstances, but those whose searing zeal and azygous ardor for their own nations as to how society should be governed and each atom act, have prompted them "to write a book." Let us meditate a moment and try to measure with the mind's eye the enormous breadth, heighth and profundity of the soul consuming pride that fires the passion of the individual, now on the eve of needy notoriety, and then pardon is assured in advance, or before final judgment is announced, yes, we wind up with a half self-chastising smile, not for reading the book, but at our own heedlessness in not hitherto approximately estimating the dynamic force or mighty weight of noise of the cheap, chewed or chattered chafif of carving critics eagerly awaiting the arrival of the book! How hold to task the mercenary mortal under such mind-shattering surroundings of internal shine and external shadow onlv from eternal shuffling, preserved bv the seem- 383 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS ingly smiling, sure shining shekels? But indeed it may be said with at least a shade of plausibility that the most tinkling inconsistency, not to say jarring contradiction was reached by topping the summit of intercedent absurd- ities when Interest (rent) was justified and Rent (interest) religiously condemned! The husband, the sister abjured! The brother, the wife adored ! As the vulgar suppose in the hope of enjoying a swim in the gracing grease of the goad- ing, glittering, golden god ! On page 35 we read : "In short I think we should find that now, as when Dr. Adam Smith wrote, 'that part of a man's stock which he expects to yield him a revenue is called his capital' * * * ^iXid qualifying somewhat his enumeration of money, it is doubtful if we could better list the different articles of capital than Adam Smith did in the passage which in the previous part of this chapter I have condensed." Then in a footnote on page 38 we read : "In speaking of money in this connection I am of course speaking of coin, for although paper money may perform all the functions of coin, it is not wealth, and cannot therefore be capital." But is not your capital your stock that you expect to derive a revenue from? Does anyone derive any revenue from $1,000 in paper money? . If real money performs all the functions of real money it cannot be a counterfeit, and even if of several kinds or colored species or tokens all must be entered in the same class in economics, just as if a true or Teal man performs all the functions of a real man he cannot be an ass, and even if of several kinds or colored species all must be entered in the same economic class. In the true economic sense any kind of money is not wealth, neither is it, nor can it be capital. For all wealth or capital must be consumed, either by supplying or satisfy- ing the necessities, comforts or insanely vicious whims of man, or consumed in its own reproduction; therefore, all wealth is perishable. Money is not. In a profane or secular, a political or economic sense, money is eternal. But land, or the forces of Nature, is truly imperishable. Money is the imaginary, humanely devised usurping twin or defiled wife of land. Now, then, clearly if rent for land is plain robbery, interest for money is sacrilegious robbery. But in tlie present generally accepted or common signification of the word capital, nothing is considered capital by the 384 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS heedless but money or credit. In speaking of the farmer's capital we say farmer's property or stock. In speaking of a company or corporation we ask for how much money are they capitalized. We speak not of the farmer's money or capital ; we heed not the property of the corporation. This common usage confounds the word money or capital with wealth. And then if wealth is, capital is not an abstract economic term, it is dependent, however derived, on the word wealth ; it is a distinguishing term for that part of wealth actively applied in the reproduction of wealth or increasing production of absolutely human necessities. Money cannot be thus apphed, nor thus reproduced. It is not there- fore capital, and is not entitled to anything but monetary preservation. Webster, of course, was an admirable lexicog- rapher, but had no pretentions to the mystic mumblings of political economy. The true conceptional idea, in an economic sense, of the word wealth is that which of itself possesses reproduction or consumable matter and force, and this, in the ratio of its volumetric magnitude and human indispensability. Money can not be endowed with such "immanent attributes ; therefore it cannot be wealth or cap- ital. When money was metal or paper it could assist in production and was therefore consumable. It was then applied as, or consumed into, money, and taken from its potential or waiting sphere of usefulness and to that sphere, while used as money, forever lost. Anything conceivable that cannot tend of itself, or without human law to back it, or assist in administering to the conservation, preserva- tion and healthy longevity of the human race, or possesses no transmutative powers, merit, worth or value for the human being, such a thing cannot be rightly said to be wealth ; and all things must be classed, relatively, as they possess those powers. Terrestrial surface, or national lands, as well as land in visible transition or so-called wealth, is wealth or riches, or the flowing stream of sustenance for the human race. Mars or Jupiter, etc., while beautiful to look at, to the human senses, is not. Would one not say that the individual would badly need an ice-cold water shampoo who would say or assert that five ounces of the metal gold ''stamped with certain marks, words, etc., con- verting it into monev." — Webster, was the equivalent in 3«5 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS wealth, or matter of intrinsic value to man, as, one well- cared-for acre of land one foot deep, with an inexhaustible and indestructible base and surface with air and sunshine 100 miles high, or the equivalent of 2,178 tons of fertile, evenly diffused soil, of human life, comforts, conveniences and luxury sustaining powers. Some other writers think that they have found the philosopher's stone when the} proclaim that things derive their value from the use that they are put to. As to gold : Of what use or intrinsic value to man, is the gold ring in the African's nose? There may be some unfathomably artful meaning in this distinction between metallic legal tender and paper legal tender money, that the common mortal cannot descend to without a diver's suit and appliances. But a shadow of the absurdity of this distinction shows on pages 47-8 and reads : "That this uni- versal truth (wages not drawn from capital) is so often obscured, is largely due to that fruitful source of economic obscurities, the confounding of wealth with money." Further on in a successful attempt to paint both pot and kettle black we are treated to some technical wordy ambiguities, as profits, wages, rent, superintendence, interest, compensation for risk, etc., and to add to the confusion, to page 116 is entrusted: "The division of wealth, into rent, wages and profits is- like talking of the division of mankind into men, women and human beings." Let us see if we cannot divine a more appropriate likeness of the division. Rent being in- superably condemned as robbery we will not enumerate it. Now, wages being the natural and just reward of the lab- orer, if this labor is unaccompanied or unassisted by the product of past labor not his own ; in this case wages should have a ticket and a towel for the swim. Profit, strange as it may at first appear, is the just and natural reproduction of the product of past labor, together with an extra or separate gain commensurate with the assistance rendered the laborer to avail himself more abundantly of the inde- finable, ever impartially constant forces of nature; which forces demand as an indissoluble forfeit the so-called ele- ment of risk, for which she allows no compensation, it being the price or cost of human knowledge or learninr^ charged by nature for the abuse and desecration of her powers and beauties. In this case profits (reproduction 386 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS being a profit versus decay, as well as a very small per- centage of the increase) is entitled to a 'bathing suit, balm, ticket and toilet. Interest, the premium on iniquitous in- dolence, the penalty imposed on initial industry, is the bane of social equality, is the invention and religion of dissolute man, is the illegitimate and blasphemous result of the evilly devised ravings of selfish, uncivilized man and by him called human law. It despises and denies risk, as is seen by the general methods of money-loaners demanding three times the amount of the loan as security. By no literal code of darkness can interest, or money, or price paid for the use of riskless money be blended or construed with the just reproduction or profit of the product of past labor actively and riskily applied. Become befouled, begrimed, besotted as the brute, if you will, in a vain endeavor to cloak the crime of the infamous coin-cormorant and his co-conspirator the chaffing, cowardly, cringing politician, and the inevitable re- sult must be to expose either a grinning expenditure of fulsome falsehoods for a future full greased palm, a cloven foot, or a boudoir to let in the bony building over the brain. So, to talk of the just or righteous distribution of wealth into wages, profits and interest, is like talking of the division of honest mankind into men, women and howling devils. A little further on, tow^ards the cheeky, chilling, barren wastes of the frigid circle of contorted economic theories we are warmingly regaled by the ringing riddle of Bastiat's plane allegory, and James' baby cow and Willie denying the corn. But we find no suggestion that either or each should make his own plane, or pay ten planks, down, for the plane, and thus, not establish an insane precedent, nor is it suggested that plank planing is more laborious on the mental and physical forces, nor that James chose plane making in pref- erence to planing planks, the enjoyment of such choice being a part recompense, for if all made planes there would be a plethora of planes and dearth of planks sufficient to cajole the economic hoodoo into chanting his carious, though canty, incantation about over-production supply and away-down under-consumption demand, and neither Willy nor Jimmy would receive competitive benefits, nor mutual or co-opera- tive blessings. But the callow, shallow apagoge, reasoning, or suggestive remarks on Bastiat's plane, is the plainly naked Z^7 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and nipping desire to inculcate in the minds of the carelessly magnanimous producer, the idea that, since interest is cold and cruel an cursed robbery, yet there may be some Satanic mystery connected with the immanent powers of money, that it would be advisable to pay it and say nothing but saw wood, while the advisedly imitating economic "parrots of the plane" will shoulder all responsibility for the blasphem- ously analogous comparison of the interest mystery, with the eternal mystery of the forces of nature in all germina- tion, maturation and decay; as we read on page 138: ''It is not an arbitrary but a natural thing; it is not the result of a particular" (particular sickly palaver, we thought it was Hindoo, or Patagonian) "social organization, but of laws of the universe which underlie society" (and belie and defy the laws of nature or the universe). "It is therefore just." In lieu of angering, bearding, or boring, now, the patient, merciful reader with any more comment on the above question, we will give a little about the cow story on page 135. William is enjoined to give back to James, who loans a calf, at the end of a year not a calf but a cow. Sup- pose that J. and W.'s ma's had each a cow, and each dutiful cow had a calf, but James' ma's cow refused to live and died of supply and demand, so J. had W., to care for or raise the calf until J. could buy a cow the following year, when W. would return a calf of a similar age as the one at loaning, then was J. not benefitted as well as W., who at first could have bought a calf as well as borrowed it, and if J. was not benefitted by loaning the calf, why loan it ? He should have retained it. The whole proposition is as silly, and is thor- oughly in keeping with J.'s late lamented cow, and shows that as soon as we leave first principles we succeed in disgusting instead of instructing our neighbors, and irreversibly become generative fools among our fallow fellows. If one should plant and care for a tree, a wheat grain, or raise a cow, the fruit in either case, or milk, would be the product of the labor expended, in connection with the indefinable forces of nature, in the perfection or maturation of either or all, whether the produce is gathered in one day or 100 years, PLAIN FACTS galley one hundred and t^vo it is still the product of labor, but never interest! Should one raise a burro, or a mule, until it was able to work, its 388 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS work would be the return for, or product of, the labor ex- pended in the perfection, etc., of the animal, for the repro- duction of which one must immediately prepare. But if either animal, preferably the former, should take his hind hand in his ni-right foot and kick one's brains out, the transactive result would be justified on the sacred grounds of the holy laws of the universe and be reverentially chris- tened interest. We should here remark that Bastiat's riddle reminds us of a piece of poetry we found, when aimlessly wandering through the haven of orthodox poets, the author- ship of which, each one claiming, was the sole contention existing in their aerial retreat. It read as follows: Now Bastiat, William and James all had very large brains. That an unfortunate blind man could quite readily see. But how Shylock must cheerily laugh since he knows that the calf had so much more brains than each one of the three. On page 13 we read concerning the author's cash capital: "That 1, having a thousand dollars, can certainly let it out at interest, does not arise from the fact that there are others not having a thousand dollars, who will gladly pay me for the use of it if they can get it in no other way but from the fact that the capital which my thousand dollars repre- sents has the power (capital has, not the money) of yielding an increase to whoever has it, even though he be a million- aire." Who will have it to-morrow? It represents one thing to-day, another to-morrow ; it represents for the year and during the year over sixty times its supposed represent- ing measure and yields sixty annual interests, rather dear circulating medium, will nature yield sixty fold? Why not buy property and go to work and produce or employ labor? On taking the cue we exchange our property and receive not only $10,000, but with it also, the legal laugh on labor ! Now, pugh! stinking labor! we now can riot in revelry and ape the social noxious ninny! Is this not why sufficient cur- rerxcy wcmld lead to hurtful speculation and should be con- demned ? Certainly that such as letting out at interest is the case to-day — ^whether through the operation of just or unjust law— is quite evident. So at a glance can be seen how smooth, and easy it is to write and gloss over such social crime, with sweet smacking sentences, or candy-covered- catch phrases and have them dovetail with the rudder of the 389 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS princely pleasure yacht swiftly skipping in the swim and skilfully steering clear of the shivering shrieks aboard com- mon humanity's wreck. Suppose a producer had an advan- tageous opening for so much of the product of past labor, that was by law and custom measured by $i,ooo, and while waiting to hypothecate or jeopardize the accumulated prod- uct of his labor to three times the amount, for its safe return, but would not pay interest. Of course he would not receive the loan. Who would suffer by the refusal? All society would suffer by not obtaining the reproduction of $i,ooo worth of perishable property and the probable in- crease brought about by natural force and human action. The producer showed his laudable willingness to assist in the happy perpetuation of the human race. The money loaner proves himself the criminal. He would not suffer had he loaned the money, but as a factor in society he would be the gainer, and who knows but that the increase would have been applied by the fanatical farmer to the mission of the faithful, for the famished, fretting, free and foreign waifs of the Five Points. When secured against risk why return him any of the active increase? Is it to recompense him for — by replacing — the numerous rich bandanas con- sumed or worn out in mopping the nightly perspiration from his sleepless brow ; yes, perspiration engendered by the all- absorbing anxiety created by the fear or knowledge that the earth run its course and that he would not have enough to purchase a first-class ticket and pullman berth for Shy- lock's heaven? Can we find any precedent, in the illus- trations to our senses of nature's law for the granting of a premium on iniquitous inactivity and the imposition of a penalty on honest, healthful labor? If the laborer is worthy of, or entitled to the natural product of his labor, why rob the laborer to that amount for the benefit of the brow- bandana-sponger? Is not the latter recompensed by labor's preservation , of the legal value, or parity of his figurative product that once for him represented his potatoes produced forty years ago, and also in allowing him, in an industrial community to loaf while others labor? Does it ever occur to mouthy patriots yet gold-idolators that we have in our midst I GO men (ay, as far as the metal gold is concerned ten men, if not less), should the caprice hunch them, which 390 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS present omens point to such disposition, to exchange wilely their watered yet withering wealth into its legal tin-type money? What paralysis they would and could inflict on national life, love, virtue? Yes, to-day even do you not I'eel virtually if not actually the initial force of the policies and the practices of that Nation-Saviour-Patriot (Wilkes Booth) working from the idiotic brain of the heedless, and the wilful, windy, warbling of the golden-psalmodist (though mayhap ignorantly traitorous) through the cun- ningly fertile and well-trained brain of Bastiat's-plane-gold- en calf ! Let us see by what calamitous alternative this national association, or political liberty suicide, could only be averted. By returning to that old time and tried logical policy, strenuously advocated and partly enacted by, the now by some despised and forgotten Patriot, Abraham Lincoln! He knew the treason of the money-might. He warned his people. The war was over ! Money-might-mandate ! He must not live! (It was easy to spur on a supposedly aggrieved daring English madman ! ) That policy that truth- fully declares that money is but the illustrating evidences of the community agreement — not for the planting of potatoes nor chopping of wood — nature peremptorily compels this, but only for the easy exchange of either and as a peremptory prima facie token or receipted note, that society owes so much to the lawful possessor. But then who would return to that policy of Abraham Lincoln, which gave us that money? W^hy that money! What did it do for us? Why it only saved the nation when besieged by diverse enemies I Not only did the nation have to fight the members of its own family, who entertained different ethic or moral, yet economic, ideas, and who fought bravely, fearlessly, and nobly for their openly expressed convictions, for the nation had to enroll about nine to their two, to quiet them. But it had to fight the fiendish craft of that social-cholera-breed- ing-octopus whose cursed cunning and contaminating carcass repose on the British island, that fiendish monster facetiously called honest money, whose loathsome offspring — it matters not which of the plagues — -is pettishly and sportively dubbed by the brainless dude as well as the obese baron, interest! As well as to fight those contemptibly insidious, secretive, 391 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS leech-like enemies within, who nauseatingly advertised as the sole preventive against the gangrene of the nation's wound, that it be merely rubbed with the mighty metal gold, and in their delirium went so far as to openly threaten national disruption if the virtues of their hoodoo charm was not supremely adored and receive the Saviour-like appellation of ultimate redemption. Oh ! what a whirring, whiskered term, since no money or any money can ever be redeemed — was the slave redeemed when exchanged for money, or the money redeemed when exchanged for him? — while it exists or is used as money, except as far as by its acceptance by government or individual in the cancellation of debts, gives it redemption, but when accepted, it is still money and ever, otherwise to be redeemed. But some large hearted, singularly single, pious lady may come to the cynical bachelor (how can we refuse) with a most pathetic, soul-stirring appeal for the poor, well-bred lady with the bare pittance of an income from $10,000 at a miserable 6 per cent., or a niggardly $600 per annum. Of course to add to the com- plicating pathos of the case the dear lady is now sixty-five years of age. She never had to trouble herself with the cares of life, and has not the faintest idea of any business. Now we -find in her case that the expectation of life, taken from life insurance statistics, would be eleven and one-tenth years more, by which, if the principal was divided, it would give the poor old lady $900 per year. But mellowed by the moisture in the maiden's melting eye we are moved to pray that she be granted a longer, happy life, by 50 per cent., that would give sixteen and two-third years, which would give her $600, as before, without the chance of blackening her soul by the sin of robbing, the opportunity of knitting from the rich old lady without ten cents capital. Was she born not with a caul on her head but with gold-rimmed spectacles through which she could see the justice of interest, and a silver spoon in her mouth, with which to eat the life- giving fruits created from the pure water crystal diamond ever sparkling on prostrate labor's brow? And now her transient transition here being near complete, and expect- ing soon to be beckoned back to render that account de- manded "from those to whom much is given (spectacles and 392 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS spoons) much shall be expected?" Is this $10,000 unqual- ifiedly demanded to pay back St. Peter not only the market price or principal, but also the interest accumulated in the spectacles and spoons? Listen! But she would leave the money for charitable purposes, perhaps to be divided be- tween God's poor. Are only those God's poor who enter a building over which some particular emblem or design has been placed when cut in a rock by some fame-drunken sculptor ? Who can define or imagine a charity arising from without, or not founded on justice and the other inseparable part of the duad, Love? Is not justice and love the chief eternal principles of your Heaven and nature? Without which the word or idea of charity is but mockery and slang ! Is this the charity that Christian civilization gives us? Is this the civilization whose only bulwark is the criminal code ? Yes, first create the criminal and then scribble the code! If justice instead of time-desecrated was an element in your social organization, or civilization, the rich old lady would not be forced to knit or be a ragged beg-grar; nor the poor old lady be possessed of $10,000 that she never threaded a needle, or w^et her hands for. Are the vastly greater number of widows born without any specs, but original, to be condemned for life to an earthly hell to atone for the sacrilegious crime of man's justification of interest-robbery (rent, or torn), so that the dear old lady may leave the $10,000 perhaps, for the conversion of the Hindoo, or Sikh, who now practices enough of natural love and justice to allow the meanest mendicant to stretch their weary, withered frames on the wondrous, wavy, marble floors of their grandest gold-adorned temples. If at death the $10,000 went directly back to the interest payers, to whom it more than rightfully belongs, there would be still but a flimsy justice in it. We read on page 125 an assertion repeated from, and in keeping with the rest of those selected by the numerous peddlers of economic clap-trap, ''that men seek to gratify their desires with the least exertion." That some men do, goes without saying, but that the great majority of mankind do not, goes the same road. Of course the great pro rata increase of production and consumption over the increase of population, before and since improved ma- 393 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS chinery or the happy fruitful reahzation of the creative crystallization of concerted human reason, flatly belies or confutes the above old, worn-out quotation. Besides we can clearly see its refutation by stopping for an instant in our reckless race of rambling, random statements, to calmly and unbiasly observe the seemingly perpetual and appalling deplorable error of poor, benighted, ill-led labor in its de- mands, when it wildly and ferociously stops short to growl at its ever-curbing snaffle-bit, which demands have never been, with existing wages and increase asked — even when most unreasonable — more than 25 per cent, of its natural and just reward, the product of its sole exertion ! Thus do manly mankind seek to satisfy nature's cravings by quarter-paid constant labor ! Ever scorning the doctrine of "The survival of — them — the fittest." But let us here frankly and im- partially remember this : That ignorance alone is the only bond-slave of labor. So our highest duty is plain, all our efforts and energy should be directed and sheltered by the shibboleth of the poor editor of a well-known New York weekly newspaper, during his years of twilight or previous to his complete capitulation to the seductive wiles of market- able peculating politicians and the mighty, monstrous magic of monopoly; that shibboleth will live and bear abundant wholesome fruit, when party politics and dependent labor shall forever be no more. Yes. Let all who beheve that the highest ideal of man can only be attained through the universal brotherhood of man, and by this only can man from out his being dispossess the brute, and perfect his real mission here by establishing man's heaven on earth, to fitting- ly prepare him for God and man's own, unknown next! Therefore let us join our forces to "Spread the Lio:ht." Yes, ever being careful, lest our innate cupidity lead us to stray, by tempting us to outdo, yet ape the gods by endeavoring to become as, and produce, that pure, dazzling, soul-inspiring brightness that demands from imitative, proud or priggish man who even dares to irreverently gaze upon it, that pecu- liar, optic penalty of pain, by prattling, puny man pro- nounced snow-blindness. If space permitted we would like to comment some more, on that "least exertion" quotation, as well as on several others and compare the emblems of 394 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS one with the other while amazingly gazing at the heart- stabbing scenes of their conflict, even though we keenly recognize the hypnotizing power of the highly prized, bril- liant, sparkling gems most seductively set in the halo of your Christian civilization. They may be snapshotted by the detective thug's kodak as follows: No. i, But children and fools speak the truth ; No. 2, Words are the counters of wise men, but the circulating medium of fools ! But we must be content with the few we have cited and barely touched; and, with the virtue or intrinsic value of the old Latin axiom: '*Ex, uno, disce omnes," "From one or a few, you may judge of the rest." Besides we have not the slight- est intention of trying to make these "Revelations" a great book, for ever ringing in our ears is the admonition of the old Greek proverb : "Mega biblion, mega kalon," or "A great book is a great evil." But in our review of P. and P. we are faithfully forced to say that the most potently deplorable and ruefully felt fact, in our imperfect judgment, of all this inter- twined, confused juggling with wigghng words, delusive dictums, and pusy proverbs, while loudly and searingly denouncing the inconsistency of the very numerous, notor- ious writers, is, that it appears, and sounds, like unto the clanging chorus of the song, of those spirits lost, quacking quasi economic lore, in their vain endeavor to solve, by defending, the enigma passed down in the bedazzling, bardic babble of barbaric ancient tongues, the philosophy of which defense is as delicate as, and the literal counterpoise of its antique author's mummy, that cannot bear the gentle touch of li^ht; and, in their perpetual-motion, brain-destroying efforts to reconcile the factious squabbling triune, of interest- robbery, namely falsehood, hatred, injustice, with the sublime union or trinity of man's -natural recomoense, or wages, namely justice, love, truth. Should it ever become possible that anyone shall in the near future peruse these lines the reader may remember that for the past twenty years that an indomitable and growing party have been dis- cussing both ardently and intelligently among other divisions of political economy the financial question or the true func- tions of money versus the inherent attributes of material, etc., and continuously demanded the free coinage of gold 395 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and silver, together with United States Treasury notes issued and controlled directly by government, which at best is but a feeble and single step in true economic reform, as it would only do away with one assured or certified interest — the same as they now consistently demand, such notes to supply, in case of any deficit discovered in, the adequate, or commensurate, volume of circulating medium required for the healthy or normal transactions of production and ex- changee of same. About the time that P. and P. was copy- righted this party, then known as the national greenback party, now known as the national people's party and now Populist. We may remark in passing that the members of the old greenback party that, by whatever name known, in the aggregate are too intelligent, patriotic, unselfish, and so thoroughly imbued with the most evenly diffused, gen- uinely true American spirit of equality, freedom and jus- tice, that nothing short of the supernatural could shake their erudite and honestly conceived convictions of the plain justice of the greenback tenets; tenets that will blaze with a mid-day sun of justice over a United States Republic, i,ooo years hence, when not only the abom- inable conditions wrought by individual money tax, of which the most unsightly, labor craving bare subsistence, will be unknown, but the expressive marks of such ideas will be read of as obsolete terms, even of past history! This party at that time had about twenty representatives to the lower house of Congress, apparently with every pros- pect of increase. This was too much for the American and European monometallic or certain-high-interest lords. Something must be done — an opportune time for neatly robed nonsense, dashed with piquant specks of truth, to bait the fluttering, flopping labor-sucker — no deed known to Satan was too dark that would aid to stop the growing sentiment, or to divert or distract public attention and drive it on any chimerical chase that could be schemed through the slums or sailed in the swim. The monometallic-brained lordlings were willingly assisted by such mistaken capitalists as railroaders, because thisj party advocated the government ownership of railroads, 396 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS and some of them free travel for bonafide citizens. By the land holders, because this party advocated or dis- cussed the nationally universal limitation of land hold- ing, the embryo maximum average proposed being about one hundred acres; and by numerous other hordes, who never consistently or persistently seek to accomplish any reform, whose brains seem to be located in their heels, rendering them always prepared to run after every fuga- cious fad that flies, and satisfied to catch a trample from the shadow. Quesnay's unique tax Phoenix was resur- rected. Lucky bird ! But, alas ! the wings were cut that once flapped the "private title," and was henceforth com- mitted from air to earth, also in the sentence one r^ads that Phoenix and private titles must ever walk the earth and never attempt to fly of¥ again ! ''Progress and Pov- erty" was published. Most likely the author had not criminally connived with the political and economic ene- mies of the Republic, although they hoist and shelter under false named banners, and as the astute, money loan- ing fiend has no country he belongs to every party likely to succeed or further his "gratification of desire with the least possible exertion," yet to a partisan it would reasonably look suspicious. But why not it happen that the author by his book assisted in creating and maintain- ing more evil than he knew ! Whatever may be said against the book, we feel free to say that it is our falli- ble opinion that, if the latter section or two — wherever pathetic or sentimental sayings have been dealt in — of the book had been written first, then the heavens might not have fallen. For the tiny streaks of sunshine that here and there flittingly dapple those pages might have furnished light to the author in his perils of pearl diving, seeking the pearly, solid, truthful rocks on which to build erect his fundamental principles ! Light sufficient to guide him in a straight or heavenward course, although of neces- sity finding himself beneath that turbid ocean, thickly darkened by the falsehoods of the mephitic, mimicing men- tors of Satan's economic code ! We believe that in this opinion none with us will more readily concur than the author. . Let all this be as it may, we reluctantly say 397 PLAIN ECONOMIC FACTS that, as a marvel of confusing, undulating, rotating and circulating medium of human understanding, indeed, it is a great book ! That the author deserves great credit for the admirable hardihood displayed — in those times of eclectic form and aesthetic taste — in classifying any social evil by its proper name, which may in time result in suffi- cient fruits of good, to counteract an enormous load of evil, all must certainly admit. But that the concentrating of two or more taxes into one and placing it on private titles to land will permanently abate any settled, pres- ent, economic or social evil, we believe, that upon the minds of all observing, thoughtful beings that the impres- sion left — of such a hope, idea or thought, much less result, by anyone — resembles that fantastic, fleeting, flit- ting form never found, but from out the- shifting sphere of suppositious sights and scenes fading, as in a fancy, fabled, fairy-flirting view of the fair republic of Dream ! With respects, The Author. 1^ jjED-S? 398 •^^..^^ /J^'v X/ .'^\ %.^* .'I . .3^"-. ^-^^ ''Ik a"^ •V »^-^'' \/ -^^'° "■^^>' DOBBS BROS. 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